Cuttack doctors join woman’s severed arm in miracle surgery

Shrirama Chandra Bhanja Medical College Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack city was in news for a remarkable surgery. Through the successful intervention of the doctors there, a chopped forearm of a 48-year-old woman was reimplanted though she suffered from more than one disease or comorbidity.

The team of seven doctors who performed this complicated operation – for a duration of more than eight hours — were headed by Professor Arun Choudhury and included anaesthesiologists, micro-vascular surgeons and plastic surgeons. It was conducted at the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department.

The name of the patient is Sukantio Mohanty and it was her nephew along with others who chopped off her arm following a family feud on March 4. She was rushed to SCB MCH on the same day.

Sharing details with the media Choudhury said that she is a lung and heart patient and the amputation point had 20 tendons and three vital nerves. Confronted with this complicated case, the team decided to take the challenge and reimplanted the forearm by joining the nerves, tendons and blood vessels on the very day she was admitted.

Apart from the injury, water had accumulated in her chest which was taken out under the guidance of Prof. M.R. Patnaik while her heart ailment was taken care of by Prof. S.N. Routray.

She was given nine bottles of AB positive blood to make up for the loss of blood during the surgery.

Mohanty was treated free of cost at the hospital which in private hospital would entail an expenditure of Rs.10 lakhs – a burden she could not have borne.

Following the surgery, she was kept under close observation. After making sure that there was proper blood flow in the re-implanted forearm, she was discharged on Wednesday. Among those present during her discharge were Prof. Sudhansu Mishra, SCH MCH Superintendent and others.

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