RGGGH doctors remove knife from man’s throat in rare life-saving surgery
The patient, Ramamurthy, had allegedly stabbed himself in an attempt to end his life last Tuesday and was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition.
Patient Ramamurthy surrounded by the team of surgeons, who saved his life, at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital
CHENNAI: In a rare and challenging medical case, doctors at Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital ( RGGGH) successfully removed a knife lodged deep in the throat of a 45-year-old man from Koyambedu.
The patient, Ramamurthy, had allegedly stabbed himself in an attempt to end his life last Tuesday and was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition.
On admission, a multi-disciplinary team conducted an emergency CT scan, which showed that the knife had pierced the trachea and damaged the inferior thyroid artery. The injury had also caused air to leak into surrounding tissues, leading to rapidly worsening swelling of the neck.
The swelling made it impossible for the anaesthesia team to administer drugs through the normal oral route. Doctors therefore performed a tracheotomy to secure the airway before the surgery.
Surgeons then made an incision in the neck and carefully extracted the knife, which had penetrated nearly 3-4 centimetres. Fortunately, no major blood vessels had been severed.
“Removing the knife outside a controlled medical setting could have led to catastrophic blood loss,” said Dr Anthony Iruthayaraj, director-in-charge, ENT department. “The same procedure in a private hospital would have cost around Rs 2.5 lakh, excluding hospital stay, but Ramamurthy received treatment free of cost under the CM’s Health Insurance Scheme.”
A four-member team comprising specialists from ENT, surgical gastroenterology, anaesthesia, vascular surgery and emergency medicine jointly performed the operation. Hospital authorities said the patient was stable and would remain under observation for a few more days before being discharged.