Hospital salvages limb of 11-year-old boy from Channarayapatna with crush injury

Mangaluru: A team of skilled doctors at Kanachur Hospital successfully salvaged the upper limb of an 11-year-old boy from Channarayapatna, who suffered a severe crush and degloving injury on his left hand with a grass-cutting machine on Feb 26.

The healthcare facilities, combined with the surgical skills of the experts and planned phased-out complex surgeries, which lasted for many hours, gave the young boy a renewed chance at a new lease of life. The hospital stated in a release that the child, with the left upper limb extensive crush and degloving injury, was initially resuscitated by the trauma team at Kanachur.

The family was counselled on the attempt to save the hand of the child instead of opting for amputation. They were informed about the need for repeated surgeries in stages, the need for blood transfusions, and the complications of bleeding, sepsis, and high chances of infection to the muscles and tissues, as well as the failure of grafts or even losing the hand. The family placed their faith in the expertise of the team and gave the experts a green signal, stated a release from the hospital.

The fracture fixation was done by the orthopaedic team, followed by the neurovascular repair and extensive wound debridement. In the next phase, after six to eight months, surgical tendon transfer procedures will be performed to enable his wrist and finger movement with continued rehabilitation.

UK Monu, chairman of Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences, commended the team's efforts, highlighting their commitment to excellence in trauma and reconstructive surgery.