Press Release
A helium cylinder explosion at a local festival caused traumatic amputation and burns below both knees in a 10-year-old boy. The amputated lower limbs were preserved at the scene by first responders, and the child was transported to Christian Medical College Vellore within hours. At the Trauma Centre, CMC Vellore Ranipet campus; paediatric intensivists and anaesthetists stabilised the patient.
A combined team of plastic surgeons and paediatric orthopaedic surgeons performed a 14-hour procedure to reattach both legs. The surgery involved reconstruction of bones, blood vessels, nerves, muscles and skin under the operating microscope. Both limbs have survived completely. The child has recovered well and was discharged after three weeks of admission.
He is expected to regain independent mobility following physiotherapy and rehabilitation. The logistics of this bilateral reimplantation surgery could be done seamlessly because of the teamwork of all those involved. The challenges posed by extremely small blood vessels of sizes ranging from 0.6 to 0.8mm could be surmounted by precise techniques of super microsurgery.
