How docs saved man pierced by grille
1ft-Long Rod Was Inches From Man’s Heart, Aorta
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai: 02.06.2018
At first look, it seemed like a man crouched on top of a compound wall. It took a second look for the passerby to realise the man wasn’t sitting. He was pinned to the iron grille.
Too scared to scream or move with the rods in his flesh, 29-year-old Vetrivel put his weight on his arms, which he rested on top of the wall. He bent his knees to stop his legs from pulling him down.
Vetrivel, a driver who stayed with his employer at Jayalakshmipuram in Nungambakkam, had returned late at night after watching a film on May 20. As the gates were locked, he scaled the compound wall and jumped on to the balcony on the first floor, where he stayed. As the doors there were shut too, he tried to leapfrog from the balcony out of the compound, landing on the grilles instead.
Half an hour later, a passerby noticed him hanging by his skin and alerted the police. “It was beyond us to extricate him,” said T Sundaramoorthy, Nungambakkam police inspector. “We we were running short of time.”
In 15 minutes, close to 1am, two firemen arrived with hydraulic cutters to cut the rods, leaving the pierced portion inside. It took more than 20 minutes to slice the metal. “We had to do it without moving Vetrivel. We knew a slight movement of the metal inside could be harmful,” said a rescue team member.
Immobilising an accident victim is a lesson that is taught in basic emergency medicine. This lesson is what saved Vetrivel’s life. He was rushed to the government general hospital in a prone position, with the 3ft metal grille. A CT scan revealed one rod of the grille – with a spike and hooks — lodged deep in his thoracic cavity. “The grille was less than an inch from his aorta and the heart,” said Dr A Sivaraman, chief of cardiothoracic department at the hospital. If the police and firemen tried to extricate Vetrivel, the grille could have torn through the aorta and heart. “He would have died on the spot,” said the doctor.
At 2.45am, Vetrivel was taken to the operating room where three doctors tried to dislodge the grille surgically. The rod had pierced just below Vetrivel’s seventh rib.
“We made an incision below the fifth rib at the back to feel how far the grille had gone,” said Dr K S Saravana Krishna Raja. The grille, around 3cm wide, had gone up his thoracic cavity, pierced his left lung and lay lodged just below the skin fat on the second rib. The doctors had to pull the grille out, while ensuring it didn’t nip the vital organs. The punctured lung required around seven stitches. The procedure took less than three hours.
The case was unlike anything the doctors had seen. “We have had patients being brought in with knives inside them, but this was unusual,” said Dr Sivaraman. Vetrivel, who was under observation for more than a week was discharged on Thursday.
1ft-Long Rod Was Inches From Man’s Heart, Aorta
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai: 02.06.2018
At first look, it seemed like a man crouched on top of a compound wall. It took a second look for the passerby to realise the man wasn’t sitting. He was pinned to the iron grille.
Too scared to scream or move with the rods in his flesh, 29-year-old Vetrivel put his weight on his arms, which he rested on top of the wall. He bent his knees to stop his legs from pulling him down.
Vetrivel, a driver who stayed with his employer at Jayalakshmipuram in Nungambakkam, had returned late at night after watching a film on May 20. As the gates were locked, he scaled the compound wall and jumped on to the balcony on the first floor, where he stayed. As the doors there were shut too, he tried to leapfrog from the balcony out of the compound, landing on the grilles instead.
Half an hour later, a passerby noticed him hanging by his skin and alerted the police. “It was beyond us to extricate him,” said T Sundaramoorthy, Nungambakkam police inspector. “We we were running short of time.”
In 15 minutes, close to 1am, two firemen arrived with hydraulic cutters to cut the rods, leaving the pierced portion inside. It took more than 20 minutes to slice the metal. “We had to do it without moving Vetrivel. We knew a slight movement of the metal inside could be harmful,” said a rescue team member.
Immobilising an accident victim is a lesson that is taught in basic emergency medicine. This lesson is what saved Vetrivel’s life. He was rushed to the government general hospital in a prone position, with the 3ft metal grille. A CT scan revealed one rod of the grille – with a spike and hooks — lodged deep in his thoracic cavity. “The grille was less than an inch from his aorta and the heart,” said Dr A Sivaraman, chief of cardiothoracic department at the hospital. If the police and firemen tried to extricate Vetrivel, the grille could have torn through the aorta and heart. “He would have died on the spot,” said the doctor.
At 2.45am, Vetrivel was taken to the operating room where three doctors tried to dislodge the grille surgically. The rod had pierced just below Vetrivel’s seventh rib.
“We made an incision below the fifth rib at the back to feel how far the grille had gone,” said Dr K S Saravana Krishna Raja. The grille, around 3cm wide, had gone up his thoracic cavity, pierced his left lung and lay lodged just below the skin fat on the second rib. The doctors had to pull the grille out, while ensuring it didn’t nip the vital organs. The punctured lung required around seven stitches. The procedure took less than three hours.
The case was unlike anything the doctors had seen. “We have had patients being brought in with knives inside them, but this was unusual,” said Dr Sivaraman. Vetrivel, who was under observation for more than a week was discharged on Thursday.
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