 Online edition of India's National Newspaper Sunday, Jun 29, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Andhra Pradesh
Seven-hour surgery performed on her on June 21 Matter of luck that she lived to narrate the miracle: doctors Kakinada: Twenty-five-year-old P Lakshmi, a native of Yanam, was a fortunate woman who survived an `Odontoid fracture’ (breaking of the high cervical vertebral bone) when she fell from a motorcycle at the age of 17. Though she was immediately taken to a doctor with severe neck pain, the exact problem was diagnosed only recently when she complained of weakness of muscles and nerve impulses caused by spinal cord compression. There were also perceptible changes in the behaviour pattern which went unnoticed. All the while she was given medicines under the belief that her neck would have been sprained. Lakshmi could have died instantaneously due to respiratory arrest or had her limbs paralyzed for life but it was sheer luck that she lived to narrate the miracle. Dr. MV Kiran Kumar, Consultant Neurosurgeon of Apollo Hospitals, Kakinada, to whom she was referred by doctors at Yanam government hospital, determined her condition to be one of Odontoid fracture which could be rectified by a highly risky craniovertebral surgery. Dr. Kumar successfully got the fractured parts of the bone fused with each other by a Titanium implant and related accessories (screws, rods and wires) after a seven-hour surgery done on June 21, 2008. The margin for error was zero as the damaged bone is located in `craniovertebral junction’ (CVJ) which is the most critical part of human body that connects skull and vertebral column. Even a slight mistake can damage the brain or cause permanent paralysis of both upper and lower limbs. Addressing mediapersons on Saturday, Dr. Kiran Kumar said though such injuries in CVJ area were not uncommon, Lakshmi’s survival was really a magical thing as it took eight years to detect the problem. The chances of paralysis in such cases were very high and some patients die due to sudden impairment of breath. Apollo Hospitals, Kakinada medical director Dr. C Suryaprakasa Rao, chief anaesthetist Dr. HD Shenoy and administrator V Srinivas were present.
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