A young boy was playing when he fell onto the exposed nail which plunged into his head – but he was saved thanks to heroic trauma surgeons who removed the object from his brain
A seven-year-old boy had a three-inch nail removed from his brain after accidentally falling on it while playing.
The child was taken to a local hospital in Balrampur district, Uttar Pradesh, India, after the accident in which the nail plunged into his head. His worried family didn’t know how long the nail was but knew that the incident was serious.
Due to his worsening condition, the boy was transferred to a trauma centre in Lucknow, the capital and largest city in the Indian state, where he was examined by trauma surgeons. Horror MRI and CT scans showed that the tip of the nail was poking into his brain.
READ MORE: Doctors in India operate on boy born with two extra feet attached to his stomach
The child had to undergo a high-risk operation which lasted a gruelling 10 hours. During the operation, surgeons used advanced microsurgical techniques and neuro-navigation technology to extract the nail without damaging any critical blood vessels.
A post-op photo shows the iron piece measured a whopping 8cm. Dr Sandip Tiwari, who heads the trauma surgery department at King George’s Medical University, said: “The investigation revealed that the nail had missed a major blood vessel by a fraction, which was nothing short of miraculous.
“After consulting experts, we decided to proceed with a highly complicated surgery.” After the operation, the boy was placed in intensive care to recover under observation. Doctors say he is now out of danger after the accident on May 16. Local reports say the surgery is expected to be described in an international medical journal due to its complexity.
Earlier this year, doctors in India performed a groundbreaking surgery by operating on a boy who had two extra feet attached to his stomach. The 17-year-old, who was born with four legs, underwent surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi to remove the additional limbs. The rare and complex procedure was carried out by a team of skilled doctors at the prestigious hospital in the Indian capital.
Last year, we reported one-year-old twins who were born joined at the head were separated using a complex procedure. Minal and Mirha underwent a technical three-month process involving two surgical stages, with virtual reality playing a pivotal role in the procedure. The youngsters from Pakistan were parted following a landmark operation in Turkey.