It was like the baby didn't have an arm.

From the moment of his birth, when the nerves leading to his right arm were torn loose from his spine, Charles Patrick Brady couldn't wave his tiny fist in the air, couldn't stare near-sightedly at his fingers, couldn't clutch his mother's hand. His mother, Christine, took her infant son to specialists in three states. It's hopeless, some doctors said. Wait and see if the paralysis heals itself, others said. But they all agreed on one thing: If Brady really wanted her baby to regain use of his arm, she should take him to Norfolk, to Dr. Julia K. Terzis. Brady came back to her native Hampton Roads to stay with her mother and called Terzis' office Sept. 8. The doctor agreed to see her baby that day.

The office staff ran tests; they examined Charles and his records for nearly nine hours. Then the internationally known microsurgeon spoke the words that Brady had lived for since June. I can fix your baby's arm, Terzis told her.

In 18-hour surgery scheduled for Oct. 21, Terzis will remove nerves from the 3-month-old's leg and graft them into his arm and shoulder. If all goes well, Charles will regain almost full function in that limb. Provided that his parents can come up with $26,000 in the next two weeks. Terzis has a reputation for achieving the near-impossible in nerve reconstruction. But the Bradys can't afford her services without help. ``We're Medicaid patients, and it only covers about 2 percent of her bill. It covers the hospital, but the rest is all on us. We have no insurance or anything,'' Brady said. ``We've been trying to raise the money; she's agreed to do the surgery, and we're very grateful.

``She explained that (surgery) is going to be at least 18 hours. Even that she's willing to get on her feet for that long is a whole lot.'' Eighteen hours in surgery is about average for Terzis, said Carol Torgesen, secretary of the nonprofit International Institute of Reconstructive Microsurgery. The institute was established by Terzis in March to raise funds for education and research and to help pay for indigent patients' surgery. The Bradys, who live in Martinsville, are soliciting donations to the institute, marked for their baby.

The nerves leading to Charles' right shoulder, arm and hand were damaged or ruptured during a difficult delivery, his mother said. ``The head delivered, but the shoulders stuck in the pelvis,'' Brady said. ``Normally what they do is try to pull the baby out or try to break the shoulder to deliver the baby.'' While trying to break the 10-pound baby's shoulder, she said, the nerves were torn. Such cases are old hat to Terzis, who has earned a reputation worldwide for taking on nerve reconstruction that other surgeons will not attempt. She has reattached nerves in the severed legs of a girl run over by a train, and that child went on to participate in gymnastics. She has reattached nerves in the severed penis of a child from Argentina. And she has many times reattached nerves in infants' and toddlers' paralyzed arms, one of the few surgeons in the world to attempt such delicate artistry.

Brady is fervent in her belief that Terzis is the only doctor who can restore movement and feeling in her son's arm. Over the summer, Brady consulted specialists in Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. ``We were told at first that if the nerve were torn or damaged that it would heal on its own, but if it was severed there was nothing anyone could do. It would be a miracle,'' Brady said. Then she found Terzis.

``People do not get referred to Dr. Terzis for your bread-and-butter surgery,'' Torgesen said. ``The only patients we see are patients with devastating injuries. Most of our patients - probably 99 percent of them - are with devastating injuries that cannot be helped elsewhere. We're never someone's first stop.''

The average cost of surgery for infants, including hospitalization, anesthesia and surgical fees, is about $50,000, she said. Charles may need up to three operations on his arm, spread over a couple of years. He may need nerve transplants from his legs to his arm, but the extent of nerve damage is not yet clear. For six weeks after the first surgery, the baby will be bandaged and braced to keep his neck and arm immobile.

It is urgent, Torgesen said, that the first surgery be done as soon as possible. ``Kids reconstructed from 3 to 6 months of age have more chance to maximize functional recovery than if you wait,'' she said. ``Yet parents are told again and again, we might get spontaneous recovery, let's wait. By the time the child is 4, we have passed what Dr. Terzis calls the golden age of opportunity.''

That is why his parents are so desperate to raise the money. The baby's surgery could be delayed unless they raise the money by the second week of the month, Brady said. ``With Charles, some time has already gone by, and they want to do it as quickly as they can,'' she said. Keith Brady, the baby's father, is employed by a fund-raising corporation that works exclusively with rescue squads and fire departments. Now he is trying to raise money for his son and for Terzis' new institute.

The cost doesn't matter, Christine Brady said. ``It gives you hope,'' she said. ``You can't describe the joy of having a baby, and then discovering his arm doesn't work.''