The surgical beginning
Updated On: 07 January, 2024 06:54 AM IST | Mumbai | Dr Mazda Turel
The new year brings with it a renewed vigour and tenacity that can heal any medical ailment
Listen to this article :
Representation Pic
I don`t think anything can be done for him,” the casualty medical officer called me after looking at the state in which the patient was wheeled into the emergency. Siddharth had been riding a bike that had a head-on collision with a truck, whose driver had turned into a “No Entry” lane. I went to the ER to see him. His face had split into two, with both halves of his upper and lower lips three inches apart. There was barely a semblance of a nose. The gravel from the road was mixed with the putrid stench of dried blood that filled his mouth and nose. It looked like he was missing an eye. His face resembled a ruin discovered at a destroyed archaeological site with a lifeless body attached to it. “How old is he?” I enquired. “Thirty,” replied one of his relatives. “We must do everything we can to save him,” I told the team.
The ER doctors were able to get intravenous access and supplement the blood and fluids he’d lost. “We can’t insert a breathing tube through his mouth to protect his airway,” claimed the intensivist, “as everything is blocked and fractured.” “We’ll have to do an emergency tracheostomy,” I suggested. After giving him a thorough wash to remove the muck he was covered in and sanitise the skin, he was taken to the OR and a hole made in his windpipe to connect him to the ventilator, so that he could get his supply of oxygen. Alongside, the anaesthetist stabilised his vital parameters and shifted him back to the ICU.
Read Next Story
Trending Stories
Latest Photos
Latest Videos
Latest Web Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
Mid-Day Fast
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT