Talha Umar Shaikh.

It took five hospitals and five months for an eight-year-old from Nanded, who was bitten by a snake that led to deformation in his hand, to undergo a reconstruction surgery. Doctors had initially thought the boy would require amputation.

In an eight hour-long microvascular procedure involving a team of hand and plastic surgeons, anaesthetists, paediatricians and intensive care specialists, doctors removed the skin and blood vessels from Talha Umar Shaikh’s thigh to transplant it into his forearm and wrist. Doctors said the boy’s hand has started working now.

“We kept wondering how his life as a labourer would be without a hand. Most doctors had given up,” said father Mehtaab Shaikh (34), a daily wage labourer. From their village till Mumbai, in the past five months the family has visited five hospitals.

On June 12, the boy was bitten by a cobra in his hut in a village in Mudkhed, Nanded, around 8 pm. “The snake was hiding behind a cupboard. When something bit my son, he used the phone torch and spotted the snake,” said Shaikh. Local people killed the cobra.

The boy was taken to Mudkhed rural hospital where anti-snake venom was injected and primary wound cleaning was done by the doctors who then referred him to a higher centre. The boy was shifted to a private hospital in Nanded where he was put on ventilator support for three days. “His hand started turning black and purple within 10 days. Slowly his voice changed,” said his mother Sadiya.

In 10 days, the family spent Rs 2.5 lakh for the child’s treatment in the private hospital. “When I had no money left, we went to the civil hospital,” Shaikh said. Talha remained in the civil hospital for eight days. Doctors removed dead skin from his hand, but with no further treatment possible and the hand deforming gradually, the boy was referred to Mumbai.

The family arrived at Mumbai on July 14 and Talha remained admitted to JJ hospital for close to a month. “His hand had stopped working by then. He could not move it,” says Shaikh. Experts claimed that a snake’s bite can have toxicity neurologically that affects the brain’s functioning, or muscular, that affects muscle movement. In Talha’s case, the snake’s bite was muscular toxic, which led to necrosis and blackening of skin.

Doctors at JJ hospital suggested amputation to limit the infection from spreading. When the boy’s father resisted, they referred him to Wadia hospital. On September 5, Talha was shifted to Bai Jerbai Wadia hospital.

“When he was brought, his wrist and fingers had got deviated and stiff. The hand was deformed. When anti-snake venom was given, the wound was not covered properly that led to necrosis,” said hand and plastic surgeon Dr Nilesh Satbhai.

On October 25, in an eight hour-long procedure, doctors first removed skin and blood vessels from Talha’s thigh and transplanted it into his wrist. His tissues in the hand were scarred and blood vessels were not healthy to support circulation. Doctors also faced a challenge in connecting the blood vessels of the thigh, that are thicker, with the finer vessels in the hand.

Surgeon Satbai said: “We had to wait for intensive care for several days after the surgery. His hand has started working and he will be able to use it better. Some muscles are missing in the forearm. We may need a second surgery for the muscles and tendons.”