Doctors perform critical operation on teen

New Delhi: Doctors at a city hospital managed to save a 14 year-old boy after a fence impaled his face while playing in a park. Saksham Gadia, a Class 9 student, recovered from a complex surgery.

While playing in a park with his friends, the teenager tried to jump over a fence in the local park at Paschim Vihar while chasing a ball. He accidentally lost his footing and landed head first on the grill, which pierced him below the right jawbone, breaking it into two. The impact resulted in the impalement of his neck and face, on a grill. He was stuck in this position, with grill entering his mouth, from the neck and breaking his jawbone.

“When he was presented at Fortis Hospital emergency unit, Saksham was conscious but bleeding profusely from the gaping hole in his jaw. His jaw bone was fractured with displacement of both ends. He also was bleeding profusely from his neck and mouth,” said a doctor at Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. “Had the grill pierced him anywhere else within a few centimeters from the affected area, it could have been fatal,” said the doctor.

Dr Gupta adding that, “For the safety of the patient, it is important that the metal part of the fence is left as it is and is cut externally to rescue and mobilise the individual into an emergency.”

Surgery was performed by a team of doctors led by senior consultant, department of plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, Dr Richie Gupta.  “We ligated his bleeding vessels, irrigated his wound and cleaned it off debris. The wound was repaired in layers, leaving behind a drain at neck. His lower jaw bone fragments were replaced in position and held temporarily with arch bars and wires. Three days later, via an internal approach, plating and fixation of his lower jaw was done under general anaesthesia,” explained Dr Gupta.