Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 07: A four year old patient from Tamilnadu, was brought to the Department of Emergency Medicine, KIMSHEALTH, in a critical condition due to profuse bleeding from the neck after sustaining a scissors injury at home. The incident occured while the child was creating paper craft . An emergency CT revealed a major artery next to the left collar bone had been completely severed, resulting in interruption of blood flow to the left upper limb.
Assessing the life threatening nature of the injury, the surgical team led by Dr. Sowmya Ramanan, Senior Consultant, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, KIMSHEALTH, carried out an emergency vascular repair to reconnect the ruptured artery and restore blood circulation to the left limb. Due to profuse bleeding, identifying the accurate artery posed a major challenge and the surgery was performed with meticulous caution to avoid injury to the nearby vital structures, said Dr.Sowmya Ramanan.
During the two hour surgery, the artery was stitched using ultra fine sutures to reconnect the cut ends and to restore normal blood flow. The child was placed on a ventilator for two days and was discharged after a week’s stay at the hospital.
Dr.Shaji Palangadan, Senior Consultant & Head of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Dr.Subash S – Consultant, Cardiac Anesthesia, were also part of the surgery.
