Chennai doctors save woman’s limb damaged in assault

A team of doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) salvaged the limb of a 40-year-old woman who suffered near amputation after an assault.

She was referred to the hospital from the Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH) on Friday (December 20, 2024) night, with a nearly amputated left wrist, partial amputation of the right mid-forearm, and lacerations in the scalp and right post-auricular region (near the ear lobe). 

The woman had been injured when she was assaulted with a heavy knife allegedly by her son at her residence in the city, said RGGGH dean E. Therani Rajan.

Doctors at GRH had referred the woman to RGGGH for the vascular surgeon’s opinion. The patient was admitted to the RGGGH, and the plastic surgery unit doctors examined her in the emergency ward. 

The patient was resuscitated and stabilised while emergency investigations were conducted. The doctors obtained opinion from all specialities concerned, and the patient was conscious during the initial evaluation and oriented with stable vitals. 

Doctors found that the distal hand was held by a soft tissue, and most tendons, two major nerves, and a major blood vessel were completely cut. There were fractures on both bones of the right forearm and one major vessel was injured. All tendons were injured on the back and front part of the palm as well. She also had deep lacerations in the scalp. 

The doctors shifted her to the operation theatre and a team led by three plastic surgeons, two anaesthetists, and orthopaedics, besides 13 junior doctors, operated on her. In a surgery that lasted eight hours, they stabilised the fracture, and reconstructed the injured tendons, blood vessels, and nerves.

“All the open injuries were sutured; the distal vascularity was confirmed and appropriate positioning maintained before extubating the patient and shifting her to the intensive care unit,” Dr. Thearni Rajan said. 

“The patient is currently under the care of the plastic surgery department. She is stable with maintained distal vascularity and continuous monitoring by the plastic surgery team,” he added.