Path-Breaking Surgery Gives 10-Year-Old Virendra a New Thumb from His Big Toe!

Ten years old Virendra Singh suffered burn injuries almost three years ago, which resulted in both his hands being severely burnt and many a surgery. There was some gangrene that was beginning to set in and hence the doctors had to perform surgery to amputate one hand completely and half of the palm of the other hand with all the fingers.

All of seven years of age when this incident occurred, Virendra was left deeply scarred. A good student, the shock of losing his hands and not being able to write was hard on him and his family.

On Diwali this year, three years after the incident, doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital performed a breakthrough surgery to give the 10-year-old his fingers back. This truly will remain a very special day and festival for this young boy and his family.

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This procedure required the doctors to extract the big toe and the toe adjacent to it along with the arteries, veins, nerves and tendons to reconstruct a finger and a thumb for Virendra.

“It was a very complex surgery and took 10 hours and a huge team to make it successful. We had a specialised anesthesia team continuously monitoring the microvascular blood flow for the survival of the toes that were transplanted on to the hand. Any failure would have led to even more trauma to the child. Routine work had become challenging for him, and this Diwali gift would now help him write,” said Dr Rakesh Kain, Professor of Plastic Surgery, Safdarjung Hospital, as reported by DNA.

This very complex procedure took 10-hours with the fixing of bones and the restoration of blood circulation. Surgeons say only one or two of these procedures have been conducted in southern India.

Patients with a double-arm amputation can also benefit from hand donations and this surgery.

“Safdarjung is now starting a programme for implanting hands from brain-dead donors to such patients. It would be of great help to patients who are disabled like this,” said Dr Kain to Hindustan Times.

We at The Better India salute the doctors who work tirelessly on such path-breaking procedures and wish young Virendra all the very best for a quick and smooth recovery.

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