15-year-old gets new lease of life after complex surgery

Thiruvananthapuram, October 2016:

A 15-year-old boy here claimed to have received a new lease of life after undergoing a complex surgery at a hospital here to repair his shattered spine.

The boy Thameem was riding pillion on a motorbike last month, which crashed while negotiating a steep bump at high speed and he was thrown off the vehicle. The impact of the accident was such that the fall literally broke his neck into two, causing multiple fractures of his spine and haemorrhage into his spinal cord.

The neurosurgery team, comprising a team of doctors comprising Santhosh George Thomas, Biji Bahuleyan and Girish K M, performed the emergency surgery by operating from both the front and back of his neck, thus establishing a 360 degree fixation.

During the anterior approach, the large blood clot in front of his spinal cord along with broken fragments of bone that were compressing his spinal cord were removed and the neck was kept upright with a titanium cage.

This was secured in place with a plate and screws.

He was then turned over and operated from the back to decompress the spinal cord from behind.

The cervical vertebrae were fixed with mutiple screws, rods and bone grafts, a press release from the hospital said.

Now, Thameem, who is on the road to recovery after the mishap a month ago, is able to walk with support.

Dr Santhosh George Thomas, Neurosurgeon and Spine surgeon at KIMS, Trivandrum, said 'High speed trauma to the spine in young individuals, is potentially the most devastating of all injuries to the skeletal system. Zee Media Bureau