By IANS,
New Delhi : In a medical marvel, doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) saved the life of a young executive whose chest, lungs, stomach and liver were pierced by a five feet long iron bar in a tragic accident.
“I have not seen such a case in my 35 years’ career. We were shocked when we saw the young victim,” said M.C. Mishra, chief of the AIIMS trauma centre, recalling the sight of the victim, Supratim Dutta, 22, an HCL executive, when he was wheeled into the hospital July 12.
Dutta was going to his office at around 6 a.m. on July 12 when his driver fell asleep at the wheel and rammed the vehicle into a Delhi Metro Construction site at Ghitorni, on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road in south Delhi. An iron bar pierced through the bonnet of the car, impaled Dutta’s chest and fixed him to his car seat.
“His friend and the police brought him to the hospital after cutting the bar with an iron cutter. He was holding the pierced iron bar. It was challenge for all of us at the trauma centre as we have not faced such a situation before,” Mishra told reporters Thursday.
A team of eight doctors, led by Biplab Mishra and Sushma Sagar, made a 15-inch incision in Dutta’s chest, cut seven ribs and removed the spleen in order to take out the iron bar, which weighed over 6 kg.
“The bar had gone through the centre of his upper abdominal wall and exited through the back of the left side of the chest wall. We saved the life of the victim after operating upon him for three hours. We are grateful to god for this success,” Biplab Mishra told IANS.
Sagar said the bar had injured the front side of the abdomen, liver (which sustained 3 cm laceration), stomach (10 cm laceration), diaphragm was ruptured in two places, and the upper half of his spleen was shattered. There was 4 cm laceration on the left lung and his ribs were fractured behind the torso along the chest wall.
“We must say that the victim was very courageous and was quite cooperative in spite of such a serious situation. He came to the hospital with all his vital signs normal. His blood pressure was under control he was conscious and mobile. Most importantly, he was holding the bar that pierced his chest,” Sagar added.
Biplab Mishra said it took them nearly 30 minutes to cut open his body and remove the iron bar and two and a half hours were spent in repairing the injured organs.
“We are lucky that the accident has not affected his heart. The left kidney was missed by millimeters. He was also lucky not to sustain any injury on the descending aorta, a major blood vessel,” he said, displaying the bar wrapped in a green towel.
“Extensive repair of the stomach and diaphragm, which were badly injured were done. The spleen was removed and the ribs, which were cut during the surgery, were fixed by wiring.”
Doctors said that the blood loss was minimal, just 400 ml during the whole procedure. He was given special anaesthesia and placed in the intensive care unit for two days.
“His condition is stable, he is mobile and accepting food orally,” said Subodh Kumar, another surgeon.
Doctors said that Dutta will recover completely and there will be no threat of disability. “We were expecting some infection problem, but fortunately nothing has happened so far,” Biplab Mishra said.
Dutta is responding well to the medicines and doing breathing exercises regularly, said Subodh Kumar.