Doctors unable to perform surgery on blast victims with severe burns

Mumbai: Chaos continued to reign at hospitals on Thursday as doctors scrambled to treat the victims severely injured in Wednesday' s blast. While treatment was in its final stages for some, others were yet to be operated upon owing to their severe burn injuries.

Speaking to MiD DAY, a senior doctor from the orthopaedic department of JJ hospital, where the majority of the victims are admitted, said, "We have been able to conduct only three orthopaedic surgeries till the afternoon, as a few others who require surgery have sustained severe burns. Performing an orthopaedic surgery is not advisable until the burns have healed."

According to JJ Hospital' records, 11 patients were admitted to the burns ward and 25 other patients with burn injuries had to be admitted to the critical care unit owing to their condition. Five of these were battling for their lives.

30-year-old Sunder Singh Bisht, for instance, suffered 50 per cent burns in the blasts as well as a compound fracture. Doctors have not, however, been able to operate upon him for the fracture due to his burn injuries.

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Dr Arvind Vartak, who heads the burns unit at Masina Hospital, said, "A patient can sometimes not be operated upon because cutting through the burnt skin can cause infections as the patient's immunity is already low.

However, each case has to be individually evaluated to decide whether surgery can be performed. In the past, we have seen cases of electrical burns and fractures, where we had given external support for the fracture and waited for the burns to heal."

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Dr Pradeep Bhosle from KEM Hospital's Orthopaedic Department, said, "At KEM, we received patients with lesser burn injuries and, thus, we could operate on them. But burns lead to loss of proteins, making local fractures second priority."

Other procedures
Nurses said the victims' burn injuries made even routine medical procedures difficult. Explaining their quandary, a nurse from JJ Hospital said, "I tried to put a patient on an IV fluid but I didn't know where to inject the needle because her hands were burnt. Finally, I found one small unburnt patch of skin on her neck where I injected the IV."

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Autopsies
Seventeen bodies of the blast victims were taken to JJ Hospital, where a team of forensic doctors performed autopsies on them. Evidence collected from the bodies was sent to the forensic laboratory in Kalina and all the bodies were identified.

Anatomical mystery
The dismembered leg of one of the victims was brought to Nair Hospital after the blasts and was later handed over to the police. Doctors will now use forensic science to find the identity of the person or at least identify the DNA.

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