Mumbai:
It was a mundane Sunday for doctors at Sanjeevani hospital in Malad, when 22-year-old Nirmal Mahaldar gave them the shock of their lives. The young man walked into the hospital holding a six-feet iron rod pierced through his stomach.
The doctors performed a life-saving surgery on Mahaldar, a labourer who hails from Bihar.
Recalling the incident, Mahaldar said, "I was trying to fix the tarpaulin in my makeshift home in an under construction building as the rains had hit the city. My friend was passing the rods to me and suddenly a gush of wind knocked me off balance. I fell backwards and the rod pierced my body."
His friends called for an ambulance but Mahaldar could not fit into it either owing to the awkward angle and length of the pierced rod.
"Somehow I managed to sit in the ambulance holding the rod," recalls Mahaldar. Fortunately the rod had pierced the lower body of Mahaldar, and passed through the Mesocolon (fatty layer attached to the large intestine) and Omentum (fatty tissue above the intestine).
"While performing the surgery we had to remove the Omentum completely. The organs were punctured at two places and after suturing the Mesocolon, we sutured the wound," said Dr Sunil Agarwal of Sanjeevani hospital.
Two days after the surgery, Mahaldar has recovered and is scheduled to be discharged as soon as the wound heals.
"I am a labourer and my life revolves around such rods. I will always remain and actually experience the pain every time I see a rod," concluded Mahaldar.