Last morning's Times of India carried an inspirational article on how doctors in Delhi's Max Healthcare replanted the amputated hand of a worker and saved not only his life but also his hand. The news must have evoked surprise, admiration and wonder in many a reader's mind. I wasn't surprised.
The news article only took me back to the early 90's. I was reminded of my alma mater, SCB Medical College in Cuttack. We were new into the field of medicine. Must have been in the first or second year of MBBS. So it must be either '91 or '92. Mom told me about Pradeep Uncle's son (let's call him 'Mohanty' for I forget his name now). He was in SCB with a severed hand that had been replanted. When I met Mohanty at the hospital room a couple of days later he was already a celebrity.
Mohanty was standing at a roadside stall in a village and having tea when somebody attacked a stranger standing beside him with a barchha (a country-made spear). Reflexly, Mohanty showed his hand to protect the stranger. Mohanty's hand was severed and it fell to the ground. Without losing time, Mohanty and his friend picked up the hand, put it in a plastic bag full of ice and drove on a bike to SCB Medical College, Cuttack. While his friend drove, Mohanty sat as a pillion, bleeding profusely from one limb and holding the severed hand in a bag with the other hand. All through the journey, Mohanty's friend kept talking to him to ensure that he did not fall off the bike unconscious.
That night they reached the gent's hostel of SCB Medical College and banged on Sananta Sahoo's room who was a student there. Sananta rushed and made arrangements for an emergency microvascular surgery. Dr RK Sarangi (my friend, Micky Sarangi's dad) headed the surgery. Dr Sarangi was the head of the Department of Experimental Surgery those days. He and his team successfully replanted Mohanty's hand.
When I saw Mohanty at the hospital, he was able to move his fingers and later I learnt from Pradeep Uncle that he had also regained the feelings and sensations on that hand.
Now, you see, what's there to marvel at the achievement of the doctors at Max Healthcare when nearly 15 to 20 years ago surgeons at SCB could do a similar surgery with far less facilities? The main factor for such surgeries is the time factor. The patient's hand was chopped off at a factory in Mehrauli in Delhi and he was rushed to a 5-star hospital like Max Healthcare. Think of the time in the 90's when there was no mobile phone in Orissa to contact the hospital and keep the operation theatre ready. The patient was carrying his severed hand himself with almost nobody to assist him and yet when he reached SCB in the middle of the night, things could be mobilized to save his hand.
Three cheers for the doctors at SCB Medical College! Proud to be its student.
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