New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) A baby girl whose eye was pierced with a crochet needle that then entered the brain was miraculously saved after doctors here performed a complicated surgery on her.
Kumkum, the one-year-old baby, was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre Dec 12 with a thick six-inch needle pierced through her eye. The girl was bleeding profusely.
“When we took a look at her we realised that the needle had gone through the globe of the eye touching the roof of the orbit and entered the brain. The immediate response in such a situation would have been to pull out the needle. But since the end of the needle was hooked inside, not only would that have damaged the optic nerve causing her to lose her sight, but also would have caused injury to the brain,” Deepak Gupta of the AIIMS Trauma Centre who performed the surgery told IANS.
“We immediately proceeded for the surgery which took us an hour and a half,” he added.
A team of four doctors including Gupta, Shailesh, Kapil Dev Soni and Babita, an anaesthesist with the hospital, conducted the surgery.
“Considering her age and the size of the needle and the extent to which it has pierced, we can say it was a challenging case and may be first of its kind in India,” Gupta said.
The baby, he added, although in the intensive care unit (ICU), was out of danger.
“She is eating well and is with her mother. We will discharge her on Dec 20,” he said.