Berish Strauch, a plastic surgeon whose pioneering procedures to reattach or replace vital body parts included one of the first toe-to-thumb transplants, died on Dec. 24 in Greenwich, CT. He was 90.

As the longtime chief of reconstructive surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Dr. Strauch devised many of the surgical procedures and technologies that are now considered commonplace. After a New York City firefighter lost his thumb in 1976, Dr. Strauch tried to reattach it. When that proved impossible, he suggested something more radical: taking one of the man’s big toes and sewing it in place of the severed digit. Not only did the surgery work, but within a few months, the firefighter was back on the job.