The future looked bleak indeed for B. Pechimuthu (10), and B. Sivakumar (07).
Their father had attacked their mother with acid, inflicting severe burns, and had committed suicide. They hailed from a poor economic background. The father was an alcoholic, and a drug addict who did not go to work. The mother was a daily wage earner.
The woman suffered nearly 60 per cent burns that caused disfigurement of the face. After a set of corrective procedures done over five days at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, the 29-year-old woman is ready to be discharged, two weeks after the incident which occurred on July 17.
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According to S. Natarajan, Professor of surgery, who led the team that performed the surgery on her, the major challenge was preventing permanent disfigurement of the face, chest, and abdomen, and loss of vision.
The first phase of treatment involved removing dead skin and protecting her vision.
“Her eye lids were damaged but the acid missed her eyes by a few millimetres. She did not suffer any vision impairment. We had to administer antibiotics and anti-edema drugs to combat the swelling caused by the acid,” he said.
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These drugs, while draining the liquid that caused swelling, also affected her immunity and made her susceptible to infection. She was kept in a completely sterile environment in an isolated burns ward.
Dr. Natarajan, accompanied by Assistant Professor R. Narayana Moorthy and S. Meena, began ‘collagen dressing’ or covering the damaged parts of skin with a protein layer. This led to improvement in the patient and her being fit enough to be discharged.
Hospital Dean S. Revwathy told reporters here on Thursday that the care provided for this patient would meet the international standards, and had prevented permanent disfigurement of her face.
The CMCH treated at least three such cases of acid attack victims every year.