The hands of a juvenile kid were severed by a spinning blade machine and re-attached during a 10-hour-long procedure in Pakistan, in what appears to be a unique surgical intervention.
A four-member team of very young paediatric plastic surgeons performed the complicated and risky surgery at Lahore’s Children’s Hospital. The team included Dr Waseem Humayun, Dr Salman, and Dr Farhan Gohar, and was led by Dr Aslam Rao.
It is the first incidence of re-implantation of a minor patient’s hands in Pakistan, according to doctors.
They also claim it is the first in Asia, claiming that the team has yet to locate a documented incidence of an individual’s two hands being re-implanted in any of the region’s countries.
After his hands were hacked off in a spinning blade machine at his home, the five-year-old youngster was sent to Okara District Headquarters Hospital.
Doctors from DHQ Hospital referred him to the Children’s Hospital in Lahore right away. He was transported to the hospital in a Rescue 1122 ambulance, his hands preserved in an ice jar.
Surgeons in Lahore praised the DHQ Hospital’s quick move, adding that in such circumstances, the odds of a successful operation improved dramatically when a patient arrived within six hours of the occurrence with their hands intact.
Dr. Rao told Dawn that he and his [young] team at the hospital developed the specialisation (plastic surgery). He said that after a difficult surgery, he and his team were able to preserve a boy’s hands by grafting them onto his arms.
The youngster had lost his hands around a month ago, according to Dr. Rao.
“Re-implanting the hands directly to the arms posed too many hazards because the tissues of the amputated region of the body were severely injured,” he stated.
The child was taken to the hospital late at night [about 10 p.m.], when he and his teammates had returned home from their shifts.
“I got an emergency call from one of my junior colleagues who claimed a small boy with two severed hands had arrived from Okara,” Dr Rao added.
He claimed that he immediately informed the surgeons who would be doing the surgery. “We started the treatment around 10 p.m. and finished it at 9 a.m. the next day,” he added, adding that it was a difficult surgical procedure that took the entire night.
To keep the tissues alive and ensure blood circulation back to the [separated] hands, he said his team went to great lengths to connect most of the main and invisible blood veins.
He stated the operation was performed a month ago, but the patient was kept under supervision to ensure that it went well. “We are pleased to announce that the operation was deemed successful, and the patient was discharged today (Thursday),” Dr. Aslam Rao stated.
He stated that the next phase of rehabilitation has begun, and that the hands will fully function in six to nine months.
During the previous few years, Dr. Rao and his staff have successfully re-implanted the hands of 50 youngsters at their facility.
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