“I was about to enter my 4th year engineering when my mother insisted that we visit a temple before the new semester began. It was my mother’s dream to see me as an engineer. So my father obliged and we three drove from Vellore to Kanchipuram. En route, my father lost control of the car, and the vehicle rammed a tree at high speed. While my father and I got away with minor injuries, my mother was critically injured”, says Ravi, Mrs. Geetha’s son.

“She was rushed to a nearby Government Hospital. I was praying and hoping for her to get well soon. The treating doctors were overwhelmed by the complex life-threatening injuries. My father’s friend suggested that we take her to MIOT Hospitals, Chennai. I wanted my mother back. I was incomplete without her”, recalls Ravi.

“When Mrs. Geetha* was brought to MIOT from a Government Hospital near Kanchipuram, our team of experts evaluated her immediately. She had lost nearly half the volume of her blood, and her vitals were abnormal (low blood pressure, increased heartbeat and severe difficulty with breathing). After she was put on ventilator, we placed a tube in her chest to evacuate the blood which was filling up her thoracic cavity and causing breathing difficulty, as a lifesaving measure. Eventually, her breathing and oxygenation improved. But, further diagnosis revealed multiple injuries (chest, hip, upper and lower limbs, spine and liver, including multiple rib fractures)”, explains the Director of MIOT Polytrauma Centre, one of the leading Level 1 polytrauma centres in the world. The expert recalls, “It was only the beginning, with a long way to go before we revived her”.

Staged Treatment

Since there were multiple (and extremely serious) injuries, Mrs. Geetha’s treatment procedure required meticulous planning and staged management to avoid complications. Before she was planned for surgery, we stabilized her vitals. External fixation (rods outside the bones) was done for her left wrist fracture. Her forearm, ankle and lower limbs were shattered into pieces and were beyond reconstruction. But the MIOT Trauma Team, backed with over 37 years of experience, was determined to perform absolute perfect reconstruction of joints to remove the risk of morbidity in the future. With internal fixation (implants and screws), fractures of the forearm, ankle and lower limbs were fixed. When the chest CT scan revealed diaphragm rupture (tear) resulting in stomach protrusion that compressed her lungs causing breathing difficulty, she was treated by the surgical gastro team with keyhole diaphragm repair.

Out of Critical Care

After 28 days of critical care stay, Mrs. Geetha was shifted to the ward. The crush injury on her left foot was debrided and skin grafting was done. Patient was then discharged in a very stable condition. Her hip fracture was not operated initially as she had multiple injuries, and the risk of infection was high during that period.

Three months later, once her general condition improved, Mrs. Geetha underwent total hip replacement. One week post-surgery, she was put on physiotherapy and one month post-hip surgery (4 months post-accident), she was made to walk. All thanks

Proud Mother

Ravi says, “Today, one year after her accident, my mother is able to do all her day-to-day activities by herself. I completed my engineering course successfully and I’m currently employed with one of India’s top information technology firms. My mother’s dream has come true. And I have made her proud.”

 

Not Trauma- It is MIOT Polytrauma Centre

  • Complete facilities (life support, imaging & surgical facilities) for all accidents- road, industrial or domestic- affecting all organ systems
  • Separate Centre offering 24 x 7 support by an experienced Trauma team that includes experts from all Specialities
  • Immediate stabilisation, correct evaluation & staging of treatments return patients to earlier lives without disability
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