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Miracle surgery at AIIMS

Staff Reporter

Photo: S. Subramanium

Kid walks again!: It was all smiles at the AIIMS Trauma Centre when 10-year-old Premchand, who underwent a successful backbone surgery, was able to walk after a year.

NEW DELHI: Nearly a year after 10-year-old Premchand from Uttar Pradesh was injured while playing in a field by a tractor-linked harrow which cut his backbone (lumbar spine), doctors at the Jayaprakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre of the All-India Institute of Sciences here on Saturday claimed to have successfully managed to help him walk with minimal assistance and regain sensation in both legs.

“When the child arrived at the trauma centre, he was in shock due to blood loss and had two bone-deep wounds on the back with active leak of cerebrospinal fluid from the back wound and rib fracture. The entire spine was found cut into two parts. He was initially resuscitated with fluids and blood and received high dose antibiotics to prevent meningitis,” said the Centre in a release.

The child was operated upon after he was stabilised. His spine was put back in position and repair of the spinal cord dural sac was carried out under microscopic assistance.

“The entire surgery lasted eight hours and the child was discharged ten days later. Now nine month after the surgery, the child can walk with minimal assistance and has regained sensations on both legs. He is improving each day,” said the AIIMS trauma centre chief, Dr. M. C. Misra. The child, he said, could have died of shock or meningitis or remained paraplegic if he had not been operated upon in time.

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