CMC Heart Surgeons breathe life into hopeless case

Ludhiana, August 11, 2012: Ramandeep Singh - the 20 year old son of Sohan Singh of Ludhiana   - had a massive accident while driving a scooter.

As a result, a large piece of bamboo fence went through into his body from his left neck into his right chest. He was transferred to the Christian Medical College and Hospital from a local hospital. Here he was seen by Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Head of Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery.

Ramandeep was in shock and very unstable. He had lost about 3 litres of blood in his right chest and was not able to breathe. He was taken for emergency surgery. The bleeding was found to be a torrential one which could not be adequately controlled because the right lung was solidified due to the injury and was interfering with the exposure.

So a rapid decision was made to stop the lungs by putting the patient on a special heart lung machine. Dr Bedi explained that in this rarest of rare cases the only option was to stop the lungs and the only way to do this was to use a sophisticated heart lung machine which takes over the function of the lungs (the machine has a special area through which oxygen is pumped in and purifies the blood just as a normal lung would).

The massive bleeder was identified as a complete transection of the origin of the subclavian artery. The torrential blood coming out of this tear was pumped back into the patient. The tear was now controlled and an imported graft used to restore continuity so that the right hand of   would be saved.

Even after the surgery the right lung continued to be non functional due to the massive trauma. So a special method of ventilation called independent lung ventilation was carried out. Here the left and right lungs were separately ventilated with 2 machines, made a slow but complete recovery.

The intricate respiratory care was done under the supervision of the cardiac anesthetists Dr S Garg and Dr Melchi. The other members of the team are Dr A Joseph, Dr Anish Verghese, Dr Pratap, Dr Meenu, Dr Ashwin, and Dr Nina. The heart lung machine was handled by Jairus Wilson and Mr William Prem Sagar aided by Mathew.

Dr AG Thomas – Director of CMCH – said that it was the quick thinking on the part of the surgical team which was instrumental in saving Ramandeep   . He reiterated the commitment of the CMCH to serve the people of the community with the highest level of care and expertise.