Kochi, May 24:
In a rare and miraculous medical feat, Amrita Hospital in Kochi has successfully restored the vision of a higher secondary student from Palakkad after a 9.5 cm long and 1.4 cm wide tree branch pierced through his left eye while playing.
The incident occurred last Tuesday evening when the student was accidentally struck in the eye by a branch thrown by a friend. The branch entered through the edge of his left eye, pierced the nasal bridge, and extended close to the inner edge of the right eye. The student was first taken to private hospitals in Palakkad and later in Thrissur. However, doctors there were unable to remove the embedded branch. He was then rushed to Amrita Hospital, Kochi, where an emergency surgery was promptly performed.
The surgery, which lasted around two hours, required extreme precision as the branch had passed just below the eye’s optic nerve. The complex procedure was carried out under the leadership of Dr. Suchitra Haridas, Professor of Ophthalmology and Oculoplastic Surgeon; Dr. Renuka Balu, Associate Professor in ENT; Dr. Praveen Shyam from Pediatric Ophthalmology; Dr. Arun Balaji, Senior Resident in ENT; Dr. Ramya from the Anesthesiology Department; and Dr. Diana S. from the Ophthalmology team. Dr. Suchitra Haridas and Dr. Renuka Balu noted that such a deep and extensive penetration of a foreign object through the eye is extremely rare.
The student’s family expressed immense relief and gratitude, stating that timely intervention was nothing short of a blessing. The student, now recovering well, is hopeful of resuming his studies soon, thankful that the injury did not result in permanent damage to his eyesight.
ABOUT AMRITA HOSPITAL, KOCHI (www.amritahospitals.org)
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital), based in Kochi, is one of the premier hospitals in South Asia. Founded in 1998 by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (known worldwide as Amma), it offers a full range of primary and speciality-care medical services. Amma’s vision of providing advanced medical care to the poor and disadvantaged was the inspiration for Amrita Hospital, which today is a 1,300-bed (490 units) tertiary referral and teaching hospital, serving more than 8 lakh outpatients and more than 50,000 inpatients annually.
The massive healthcare infrastructure with over 3.33 million sq.ft. of built-up area, spread over 125 acres of land, supports a daily patient volume of approximately 3,500 outpatients with 95 percent inpatient occupancy. There are 12 super-speciality departments, 45 other departments, 4,500 support staff and 670 faculty members. The hospital’s extensive infrastructure offers facilities comprising 28 modern operating theatres, 275 equipped intensive-care beds, a fully computerised and networked Hospital Information System (HIS), a fully digital radiology department, 17 NABL accredited clinical laboratories and 24/7 telemedicine service.
In 2015, South Asia's first-ever Bilateral Hand Transplant Surgery was done at Amrita Hospital. The same year, Amrita Hospital won the British Medical Journal Award for the Best Surgical Team in South Asia. The Amrita team won the award for its two successful double hand transplants, the first and the second bilateral hand transplants in this region
