Mangalore: Rare surgery at Father Muller saves man's foot from amputation
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SS)
Mangalore, Oct 12: In a rare surgery performed by a young doctor at Father Muller Medical College Hospital, a 44-year-old daily wage earner who nearly lost his leg in a freak accident got it back by reconstruction.
A daily wage earner and a farmer by profession, Satish (name changed) was happily going about his work for the last five years at an estate in Sakleshpur, until tragedy struck on a fateful day.
On Monday October 7, when Satish was at work cutting trash with a grass cutter, it rammed into his left leg cutting off his ankle.
The incident took place at around 1 pm and he was rushed to a local clinic by his son, but due to inadequacy of resources in the clinic, Satish was taken to Hassan district hospital where the surgery was not conducted as they were unsure whether the foot could survive and bandaged the wound.
Satish was then taken to Wenlock Hospital at around 7 pm in the hope of better treatment. More than six hours had passed since the accident and doctors at Wenlock Hospital told him an amputation was required. But Satish’s son was not ready to give up.
Satish was then brought to Father Muller Hospital, more than 24 hours since the accident. The foot was just hanging with a tag of skin. Normally in these types of injury the separated part is discarded and the patient becomes an amputee. But Dr Latheesh Latheef, associate professor and head of hand and microsurgery unit, department of orthopaedics, along with Dr Asif Hassan and his team took it as a challenge and performed the rare surgery on Satish and saved his foot. The cut neurovascular and tendons were repaired by microsurgical technique after stabilising the fracture.The surgery was five hours long. Miraculously, the limb has shown signs of recovery even though it was without blood supply for more than a day. The patient is recovering well.
The cost of the operation was borne by the estate owner.
The doctors have said that Satish will completely recover in the next three to six months.