Media Release

Mangalore, Jul 28: Recently, a remarkable plastic surgery was performed at Yenepoya Specialty Hospital for a victim of a railway accident, who sustained total amputation of both lower limbs on April 14 at Mangalore Central Railway station.

Santhosh and his colleague were on duty as employees of Railway Mail Service (RMS), when they both came under the wheels of the  Parasuram express on platform 1 at about 3.45 am that day. His colleague was not as lucky; he expired before he could be taken to nearby Wenlock Hospital. However, Santhosh, who was in severe shock due to severe blood loss, was rushed to Yenepoya Specialty hospital for emergency treatment. Once his condition improved with emergency care, he underwent a successful 8 hour surgery to reattach the lifeless left foot involving orthopaedic surgeon Dr Deepak Rai, plastic surgeon Dr Satish Bhat and anaesthetist Dr Salman. The right foot was severely crushed and amputation surgery had to be done for the limb.

Though the initial surgery was successful, after about two weeks deep infection caused the blood vessel maintaining life to the foot to burst. This needed another supra major microsurgery procedure, wherein the Dr Satish Bhat did a vascular bypass surgery by the technique of microsurgery involving transplant of skin and flesh to control the infection. A final orthopaedic surgery was done by Dr Deepak Rai in view of the bone infection before his discharge. Such extraordinary efforts were needed to ensure the only remaining leg survived completely.

It will take another few months for the reattached bones to unite firmly and his left leg regains strength to bear the weight of the entire body. Once the bones of the reattached leg unite well over a few weeks, Santhosh will be fitted with an artificial leg to the right side. This will permit him to do his personal work and office work independently.

This exceptional result was possible thanks to the modern advances in medical science, without which the injury would have led to permanent loss of both the legs, resulting  in severe difficulty in normal life due to the need for artificial legs on both the sides. The efforts by the medical team were taken to avoid such a situation at all costs.

Plastic surgery is commonly understood to deal with beauty problems, meant only for people in the glamour industry. However, this case is yet another example of how modern plastic surgery can make a dramatic difference to the life of common people.  This was stated at a press release by Muhammed Tahir, medical director, Yenepoya Specialty Hospital.