Surgery with city doctor’s safety box saves 6-year-old

Nagpur: Emergency surgery performed with the help of city-made medical innovation — ‘Bronchoscopy Safety Box’ — has saved life of a 6-year-old boy in the city last week.
The boy, who was brought in a critical condition to KRIMS Hospital on May 5, went home with full recovery on Monday after interventional pulmonologist Dr Sameer Arbat, who has developed this safety box, performed the rare surgery.
As the boy was having severe difficulty in breathing, it could have been a case of Covid-19 and swab test was a must. But, his condition was very critical and it was not possible to wait for 24 hours to get his samples tested. So, Dr Arbat decided to perform the surgery.
“It was an emergency. Had we waited for the swab test results, it was difficult for him to survive,” said Dr Arbat. Patient’s swab sample was sent to IGGMCH and Dr Arbat performed surgery using his safety box and wearing all protective gear. Eventually, the boy tested negative for Covid-19 next day and all doctors and other staff heaved a sigh of relief.
Dr Arbat said the process was rare not only because of the Covid-19 risk, but also because such processes are not performed on children in general.
The boy, who resides in a nearby village, had an accidental strangulation almost a month ago while he was playing on a swing. Being entangled in rope swing, his neck had got choked and he lost consciousness. He was on ventilator support at a hospital near his village for a few days. He recovered and was eventually discharged.
After three weeks of discharge, he started facing severe breathing difficulty. Considering his failure to breathe, he was brought to KRIMS. Here, it was revealed that his wind pipe had narrowed.
“This internal narrowing of the wind pipe generally happens when patients remain on ventilator for long time. But, it’s rare in children. This surgery on such a young boy was a first for me,” said Dr Arbat.
The procedure known as tracheal dilatation was performed taking all precautions for Covid-19. The narrowed segment was dilated with endoscopic balloons of different sizes. After 2 hours of surgery, the wind pipe was brought to its normal size.