#inspired by Rjalker's recent issues with people not understanding that magical healing is often ableist in so many stories

[technoxenoholic]

instead of magical healing that can poof your severed limbs right back into existence a la terrified abled person's ableist fantasy of reassurance, i think following the rule of "you can't create something from nothing" and the basic common sense of "if you try to reattach a limb which has already started to rot then you are going to have to deal with the consequences of having a rotting limb" has a lot more potential for storytelling (even aside from the question of ableism, which is obviously a big and important question to be asking and answering about/within your setting, but other people have said it better than i have the spoons to say it)

modern medical science can reattach a digit if it's been disconnected only very recently, but it will never have its full original functionality again. mobility and sensory capability will be limited. and i do think magic should be a little more powerful (because that's kind of the whole point of magic in a story), but not by too much, so maybe if you magically reattach a larger limb straight away (like within the same time frame as for digit reattachment surgery, a few hours or up to a day at very most if it's been kept cool and protected enough) it should successfully reattach, but that limb is never going to work the same again, just like a reattached finger in real life won't. those nerves and blood vessels and tendons and muscle fibers and everything else have been severed, and that's going to leave an impact after reattachment even if the limb in question hasn't deteriorated any!

and if it has already started to deteriorate just don't do it. don't invite gangrene into your life. c'mon now. Gangrene Can Fucking Kill You.