ASMITA Katkar (35) fought for her life on Tuesday after being pulled out of garbage from a collapsed bridge in Andheri, a team of over 15 doctors at the Municipal Dr RN Cooper Hospital performed several operations over a range in 14 hours, not only to save her left hand but also to stabilize her medical parameters on Wednesday.
Asmita had been struggling as a household aid, had become intracranial bleeding, crushed face and had several minor injuries. She did not respond when he was taken to the state hospital at 9.29, two hours after the collapse. Neurosurgery, plastic surgery, ENT, anesthesia, orthopedics and surgical departments worked with her from 12.30 Tuesday to 3:00 Wednesday.
At 08:00 on Tuesday, a message was sent to all doctors at Cooper Hospital to expect mass loss. By that time, the head of the ENT department Dr Shashikant Mhashal left home from Zion but stuck in traffic. "At Milan's subway, I finally left my cabin and took a lift from a biker to reach the hospital," he said. Between 9.15 and 9.29 all five injured were taken. While others stabilized, Katkar had a broken jaw and a damaged airway. Her left hand dangled from the elbow. Doctors tried to insert a trachea intra-orally, but the bleeding from her jaw made it impossible. "It was a miracle she survived, struggled to breathe, even two hours after the accident. We performed a tracheostomy to create an airway to breathe," said Dr Vinod Gite, Associate Professor at ENT. Gite has previously worked at the KEM hospital.
As Gite and Mhashal, with nine and twelve years of experience, tracheostomin performed a group of eight doctors from the anesthesia department a central line to stabilize her while orthopedics began to cleanse her wounds. At 10:30 AM, the first CT scan was performed. Her neurological status did not seem critical. The intracranial haemorrhage had not affected other parts of the brain, neurosurgeon Dr. Shraddha Maheshwari, deputy professor of neurosurgery, said. So, doctors focused on saving her hand and reconstructing her face.
Mhashal and Gite sutured her right cheek and did a basic surgery to regulate her jaw. "In my experience, survival is minimal, but in her case she emerged at the right time," Gite said. Meanwhile, the head of plastic surgery Dr. Nitin Ghag started working on her left hand. "Her hand was hanging, her nerves, tendons and muscles were injured. I had to use blood vessels from the thigh and fix the hand again, he said. The operation extended for six hours to 7 pm. Svurson Anuradha Katkar said before surgery that doctors had warned that an infection from the hand could affect the brain if the hand was not amputated in time. "We thought she had lost her hand. She was washing kitchen utensils to earn her life."
In the evening, the orthopedics team made the leg in the hand and the blood had begun to flow again. "We need time to assess whether nerve feelings will return," added Ghag. At twilight, Katkar's brain injury had begun to swell after several operations. "We noticed that her clinical status had deteriorated," said neurosurgeon Maheshwari. Maheshwari has worked for BMC hospitals for six years. She made a bold decision to perform a craniomyopia.
"There will be a deficit, but we try to get her as close to her former as possible," said plastic surgeon Ghag.
Owner Luv Katkar, a housewife in Vile Parle, has not left his side since Tuesday. "She moved her legs a bit today," he says. Their son Siddhesh refuses to return home without his mother. In his Juhu chal he goes from one house to another to play with neighbors. "We have told her that she is in dawakhana (hospital), but he continues to ask if she lives," says Sarojini, said Katar's son-in-law.