TNN

Ranchi, Mar 13: City doctors successfully removed a four-foot iron rod that pierced through the stomach of a three-year-old boy when he was playing Holi on the terrace of his grandparents' house.

"Mehul Kumar is out of danger,'' said Dr Sandeep Agarwal, who led the team of five Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) doctors, which carried out thethree-hour-long operation, on Thursday.

Mehul was playing with colours on the terrace when he suddenly fell on an iron rod left standing on the under-construction terrace, his uncle Raja Kumar Vishwakarma said. The rod pierced through his body and then broke, resulting in his fall from the roof.

He was rushed to the Hazaribagh sadar hospital from where the doctors, after giving first aid, referred him to RIMS. The boy, who was in Hazaribagh to celebrate Holi at his grandparents' house, was brought to Ranchi in an ambulance within two hours of the incident.

"We first removed the rod following which an operation was done to repair the vital organs that had been injured,'' he said, adding the doctors found over 500 ml blood in his peritoneum because of the two-layer injury in liver and four-layer injury in the stomach and large gut. "That's why two units of blood was transfused into the patient,'' he said.

RIMS director N N Agarwal said, "Mehul would recover fast and properly because he is a child and most of his vital organs are in the process of development.''

In July last year, AIIMS doctors in New Delhi performed a six-hour surgery to remove a five-foot iron rod from the chest of the 22-year-old Supratim Dutta after a road accident.