Chandigarh, Oct 1 (IANS): In just six months of its launch amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the PGI's Amputee Care Clinic here has registered more than 200 amputees in the management and their rehabilitation and fitted more than 20 prostheses, a senior doctor said on Friday.

"Since inception, we have registered more than 200 amputees and for all these patients our endeavor has been to create a paradigm shift from providing survival of amputee to giving life to amputees," M.S. Dhillon, Head, Department of Orthopedics with the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) told IANS.

He said it was hugely satisfying that they could make a visible difference to their lives through a focused approach and holistic care under the initiative of Amputee Care Clinic.

Deliberating about the intent behind the initiative, Dhillon said: "With our belief that the management of these cases does not end with the amputation surgery but requires the involvement of various specialists to cater to the social, emotional, and psychological problems, a comprehensive Amputee care Clinic came into being in February 2021 by roping in specialists from the various facet of medicine."

In the past six months, the PGI Amputee Clinic has evolved into a one-of-a-kind specialised clinic involving faculty members from various departments, including orthopaedics, PMR (physical and medical rehabilitation), psychiatry, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, all working to help the patients return as a healthy individual.

Dhillon said the clinic has registered more than 200 amputees.

"Most of them had to undergo amputations due to roadside accidents or railway track injuries; however, a few had undergone amputation due to cancer or congenital deformities. As more than 85 per cent of our patients are male and the majority of them are in the peak productive years of their life (25-50 years), the loss of limb becomes not only a personal loss but also a financial loss to the family, especially when it loses the services of its sole bread-earner.

"More than 90 per cent of the patients belong to low to middle socioeconomic strata and the majority of them have no social security or insurance."

Endorsing the need for community engagement to take forward the initiative, Dhillon elaborated: "With the support of the PGI and some philanthropies, we have started to fabricate in-house prosthesis (artificial limbs), a big move forward as patients do not spend huge amounts for procurement of prosthesis from outside agencies."

With focused attention, complications related to surgery have drastically reduced (less than 10 per cent), and the majority of the patients are free of stump complications.

"This is due to a special orthopaedic team that caters to these individuals and prioritises emergency care," he said.

So far, none of the patients in the centre has rejected his or her prosthesis, which is commendable as compared to Western and European countries where the rejection rate ranges from 50-80 per cent.

Philanthropy MICRON Industries has supported this initiative by donating Rs 4.50 lakh for the care of amputees.