> Indian man survives after iron rod pierces chest

Supratim Dutta

New Delhi, July 17 Supratim Dutta, the 23-year-old executive with HCL who was admitted to AIIMS after a two-inch wide and five-feet-long iron rod pierced through his body, has survived the accident. Doctors at the AIIMS Trauma Centre were able to perform a successful surgery that extricated the rod without causing any damage to his vital organs.

Calling it one of the “rarest of rare surgeries”, Dr M C Mishra, chief of the AIIMS Trauma Centre, said: “We were astonished when he was brought to the hospital. But we planned the surgery meticulously. We had to decide how to extricate the rod which had fortunately missed his vital organs.”

On July 12, Dutta was on his way to his Gurgaon office when his driver lost control and collided with the construction barricades on the Gurgaon-Mehrauli road. The impact of the collision caused the iron rod to pierce through the dashboard and impale Dutta.

The rod remained embedded inside his body for 90 minutes before he was taken to hospital. Dutta, however, did not lose consciousness and instead called his relatives and friends on the phone. Locals cut the rod and rushed him to AIIMS. “Fortunately, they did not try to extricate the rod from Dutta’s body. Had they done that, it could have proved fatal,” a doctor at AIIMS said.

Indian media described the three-hour-long surgery as a miracle after the iron bar, weighing six kilogrammes , cut through his liver, stomach, spleen and left lung.

It also perforated the man’s diaphragm in two places and broke a rib, but missed his heart, The Times of India reported.

‘In my 35-year long career, this is the first time that I have seen a case like this,’ the newspaper quoted doctor M.C Misra as saying.

The surgery was not an easy one. “To start with, anesthesia was an issue because Dutta could not lie down, so we had to anaesthetise him in a sitting position. It was not a standard operation but fortunately we were successful,” Mishra said.

Dutta will have to remain in the hospital for the next two weeks. “While there is no long-lasting damage, he is at risk of infection and will stay under observation,” Mishra explained. The doctor said Dutta is talking and is being allowed to walk around a little. “He is doing a few breathing exercises and has not complained of any pain in the affected area. He did complain about some pain in the neck but that was due to being anaesthetised in a sitting position,” Mishra said.