He came back from the brink

Arun Oommen | 01-June-2014

A new column – From the Surgeon’s Diary - is introduced with this issue of Future Medicine. It could be a medically significant incident in the life of a surgeon, be it a unique surgery or the survival of a patient against all odds. It could also be an eye-opener to all of us as the instances described here by the surgeons are about the endearing faith and undying human spirit as well as remarkable skills of surgeons/caretakers.

Dr Arun Oommen

On that ill-fated night, Abhimon was crossing the road when a speeding SUV banged at him leaving him in a comatose state with a severe head injury. He had profuse internal bleeding in his brain with a fracture skull. After initial resuscitative measures, he underwent urgent surgery for stopping the profuse bleeding and for removing the clot within the skull. His brain was badly damaged and swollen, so one side of his skull was removed for giving space for the swollen brain and also for better care and assessment by the neurosurgeons. The removed skull piece was placed in the abdomen. He was in a very critical state in coma and ventilator support for around three weeks.

Fortunately for everyone’s surprise, he started recovering and was removed from the ventilator but he had severe memory loss and paralysis on one side of his body. He had to be fed through gastric tube. With intensive care and rehabilitation at Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi, Abhimon was recovering gradually. He started moving his limbs and his memory started regaining. His skull defect was later corrected using the bone piece which was kept in the abdomen.

Now Abhimon has started walking on his own, regained almost full memory- all these were attained after three months of intensive care and rehabilitation. He is now keen to resume his old job as a welder. All these happened due to the intense determination of Abhimon and his caretakers.

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