Nagpur: 70% burns & 42 surgeries in 81-day hospital stay — youth defeats death many times

NAGPUR: Efforts by doctors, support from the employer firm, and willpower of a 27-year-old man together scripted a rare survival story in Nagpur recently.
Nearly three months ago, 27-year-old Sandip Tiwari (name changed), employed for a high-risk job at a private company, sustained severe burn injuries while on duty. He was rushed to critical care physician Dr Rajendra Chandak. Doctors diagnosed him with 70% burn injuries. It becomes very difficult to survive when third degree burns are more than 50%.
Doctors decided to go for every possible means to save the young man’s life. The patient was in hospital for 81 days, with over 40 days in the ICU. Doctors conducted total 42 surgical procedures on him during this period. Finally, on 82nd day, Tiwari walked on his own legs and left the hospital to live a completely normal life.
“At 70% burns, survival becomes uncertain. For the first 10 days, his blood pressure was uncontrolled,” recalled Dr Chandak.
“After the patient’s condition stabilized, plastic surgery had to be done immediately. Performing surgery every alternate day was a challenging task. The real challenge was to acquire skin from the unaffected 30% part of the body for transplantation,” he explained. There also was the risk of developing infection. Controlling such infections was the most difficult task because it may have resulted in sepsis, which proves fatal in such long-term hospital stay.
As many as 42 procedures including neck surgery, skin grafting and dressing were performed on the patient. During all this, he required a large amount of blood and plasma. Apart from this, treatment methods like protein diet and physiotherapy along with medication and medical management were further adopted.
“This case proves that modern medical science can save lives even if the burns are 70%. Apart from the doctors’ skills, medical management, and the will-power of the patient, I must mention the support given by Tiwari’s employer company. Not just with monetary support, but the company also helped him like a family member during the hospitalization,” Dr Chandak said.
Dr Chandak shared the credit of this rare survival with the team of his Central Avenue Critical Care Hospital (Chandak Hospital) — Dr Manish Zade, plastic surgeon, Dr Sachin Suryawanshi, critical care physician, Dr Kiran Patel, intensivist; Dr Shubham and Dr Suhaani Chandak.
Skin bank would have helped
27-year-old sustained 70% burn injuries while on duty in a private company
Rehabilitation was a challenge as skin was to be taken for grafting from 30% of his body’s intact portion
Had there been a functional skin bank in city, it would have been easier to treat the patient
A skin bank was earlier operational at OCHRI, but later shifted to the GMCH
This bank is not in a good condition