Braveheart covid warrior team battles corona to save life and limb

Ludhiana: We know that a COVID disease can be a killer by itself. Today all elective surgeries are very carefully vetted to make sure that a patient needing elective surgery does not have a Corona infection. If he has – the case unless an emergency - is postponed. The reason is that an active  Corona patient’s lungs are very prone to get a severe form of pneumonia and the heart is at risk of suffering  an attack just by the  corona infection itself. If a major surgery is added to this – the risk increases a 100 fold  and such a case may not survive – not because of the surgery – but because the Corona infection complicates the recovery – sometimes irreversibily. 

The Heart Team of Ivy Hospital, Mohali was recently confronted by  such a case who needed emergency surgery.  25 year old Gurjit (name changed) – a resident of Chandigarh sustained a massive injury in a car accident in Solan.  He was rushed to the Tri City and seen by Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Director of Cardio Vascular Sciences in the Ivy Hospital, Mohali. His investigations revealed a fracture of the arm bone (humerus) along with a total tear of his vessels. His arm was suffering from lack of blood and was in danger of developing gangrene.   In the meanwhile his Covid test came positive. There was now a dilemma of whether to operate or not. Not only was the patient in danger but also the operating team. Dr Bedi has operated such accident cases in Sydney and he realized that the  surgery could not be postponed. All the Heart Team discussed the case and decided to operate. Stringent measures were taken which included the use of full protective PPE kits – which incidentally also make the surgery more difficult. The surgery was a success and the limb was saved. Mr Gurjit and his family were very grateful that the Heart Team had not hesitated in spite of the major danger to themselves.

Dr Bedi is one of the senior most Cardio Vascular surgeons of India, is a Limca Book of World Record holder and a pioneer of beating heart surgery. He said that Covid is here to stay and we as surgeons have to learn to develop our skills to tackle such  cases. Even ‘recovered’ cases carry the sequelae of the infection in the form of weakened lungs and heart.