Surgeons remove iron rod from man’s neck

Unusual accident on construction site leads to penetration of the rod from front to back of the patient’s neck

A Tiruchi resident had a lucky escape after surgeons at Apollo Hospital here surgically removed a five-feet long iron rod that had pierced through his neck in a freak accident, with the help of not just medical, but also engineering staff.

Explaining the details of the unusual case to the press on Saturday, the hospital doctors said the accident had occurred at the site of the 33-year-old man’s house which was under construction. The patient was watering the cement structures on the first floor of the building on October 15 when he slipped and fell 15 feet down. As he fell, a five foot long iron rod with serrated edges on the site pierced through his neck from the front and came out at the back.

Family members rushed him to Apollo Hospital while he was fully conscious, within half an hour of the accident. “The patient was fortunate that the iron rod had not pierced the tubular structures within the neck that houses - the vocal chords; so his voice was not affected. But our greatest challenge was on how to examine the patient accurately before we could remove the rod,” Mohamed Mansoor, consultant general, laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon, who led the operating team, said.

Maintenance engineers from the hospital were brought in to first mechanically shorten the length of the rod to enable error-free scanning and further interventions. Once this was accomplished, doctors took over the case in teams. “A bedside ultrasound was done to ensure that the patient had no major vascular injury. He was then shifted to the operation theatre and the iron rod was carefully removed surgically without any complications,” said Dr. Mansoor.

On-table tracheostomy and endoscopy procedures were carried out in anticipation of post-operative complications.

In the follow-up tests, it was found that the patient had developed aspiration pneumonitis caused by gastric contents entering into the lungs, which was managed conservatively by consultant pulmonologist V. Tamilarasan. All the surgical operations were carried out within two hours.

The tracheostomy incision was subsequently closed at a later date, and the patient was discharged on October 23. Doctors removed the final sutures of his surgical wounds on Saturday.

“Cases of grievous neck injury such as this as are rare, and survival rates are quite low in our State. The patient was really lucky to have been brought to hospital quickly and also to have his voice unaffected by the accident. As surgeons, we had to ensure that the rod was removed with precision, with no residual contents left behind. We hope that the public will treat this as a cautionary incident and be careful on construction sites,” said Dr. Mansoor.