Kids seem to have an unnatural fear of escalators. But maybe not.

This week a 17-month-old got on of his fingers caught in an escalator at the courthouse in Van Nuys. The finger was severed in the 8:51 a.m. accident Tuesday at 14400 Erwin St., said the Los Angeles Fire Department's Brian Humphrey.

But there could be some good news in this …

… doctor's actually reattached the digit.

It wasn't immediately clear if the surgery would take, though.

The boy was headed from the second to first floor of the building with his mom “when his left index finger was traumatically amputated in the comb-and-groove of the foot tread at or near the lowest level of the machinery,'' Humphrey said.

Bystanders shut the escalator down using an emergency shut-off button.

As the boy was taken to Richie Pediatric Trauma Center at Northridge Hospital, firefighters and maintenance workers found the finger in the escalators machinery and the LAFD rushed it to the hospital with lights-and-sirens roaring.

Would the finger be saved? The odds were good, Humphrey said.

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.

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