HEALTH

Docs perform rare surgery to save engineer’s arm
Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, October 4
Rajesh Vats, 25-year-old engineer, was admitted to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) here following a road accident in Hoshiarpur in which he had sustained a severe crushing injury to the right arm along with multiple fractures in the left upper limb and hand.

When he was brought to the hospital, his right arm was hanging precariously and attached with just two nerves and one set of blood vessels along with a skin tag.

All muscles, skin and bone on the lower two-third portion of the upper arm were lost due to the injury.

The main challenge for the team of doctors, headed by Dr J.L. Bassi, Professor and Head, Department of Orthopaedics, along with the plastic surgery team headed by Dr Sanjeev Uppal, Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at DMCH, was to save the right arm of this young patient, employed with Maruti Udyog Limited as a design engineer.

Dr Bassi said after a painstaking surgery the damaged arm of the patient was salvaged.

The next task for the surgeons was to fill in the enormous gap in the bone of the arm which was about 10-cm wide.

"After meticulous planning, the teams of orthopaedic and plastic surgeons performed an intricate microvascular procedure in which the fibula — the smaller non-weight bearing bone of leg — along with its blood vessels was taken from the leg and used to fill in the gap of the bone in the arm,” Dr Bassi said.

“The blood supply was restored by uniting the blood vessels of the leg bone with the blood vessels of the arm. The operation lasted for about nine hours," he added.

Dr Bassi observed that in a normal course, this type of injury would have required an amputation, leaving this engineer crippled.

But due to the challenging surgical feat performed by the team of DMCH surgeons, the limb of the patient has not only been salvaged, it has been made functional as well.

"The patient will soon be able to get back to his work," Dr Bassi said.

Dr Sanjeev Uppal claimed that this technique of reconstructive microvascular surgery, being very demanding, was available at very few hospitals in this region.

He said that previously these kind of bone defects required multiple surgeries which were very traumatic to the patient.

However, with this innovative technique, defects could be managed in a single operation only with much better results.

Dr Daljit Singh, Principal, DMCH, congratulated the team spirit of the doctors.

Trained nurses seek separate directorate
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, October 4
The Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) has called upon the Punjab Government to create a separate directorate of nursing at the state level which can properly deal with the grievances and problems of nurses. And further it should have three separate posts of Deputy Director of Nursing (DDN) for education, public health and administration which will pave the way for better services and standards of education. The association also wants the post of DDN, lying vacant for the past many years, to be filled up immediately from among eligible candidates.

Addressing a press conference here today, Dr Kanwaljit Gill, president, and Dr Jasbir Kaur, general secretary of the Punjab state branch of the TNAI, demanded effective measures to make the working of the Punjab Nurses Registration Council (PNRC) more meaningful. "The council should have a qualified nurse as its president as is the prevailing practice in Delhi and many other states. Moreover, the appointment of Director, Research and Medical Education as president of the PNRC is violative of the relevant law under which the body has been established." On the composition of the PNRC, they pointed out that the council ought to have more members from among the principals of schools and colleges of nursing rather than the prevailing practice of nomination of nursing superintendents.

The TNAI functionaries were sore over the denial of proper designation and salary commensurate with their qualification and experience to the faculty members of the two Government Colleges of Nursing at Amritsar and Patiala. Most of the faculty members in these colleges were drawing salaries similar to those of sister tutor or staff nurse and not as per the UGC recommendations based on their respective qualification and experience.

Dr Gill and Dr Jasbir Kaur, while demanding that vacant posts of the three Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot be filled without any further delay, also urged the government to revive the training for the promotion of ANMs to Lady Health Visitors, which was earlier imparted in Punjab Health School at Amritsar. 

SPORTS

Athletics meet begins
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, October 4
The 5th annual athletics meet of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, began today. More than 100 boys and girls took part in this meet. The players were divided into Arya Bhatt, Apple, Bhaskar and Rohini houses and vied for top honours.

Mr B.D. Arora, a local advocate, declared the meet open and took salute from the participants. Before the formal inauguration, a cultural programme was presented by the students. Speaking on the occasion, Ms Paramjit Kaur, Principal of the school, highlighted the importance of physical fitness and reiterated that the sports make us self-disciplined.

Results: Boys (under-19):

800 m: 1 Yogesh of Rohini House (RH), 2 Kamalpreet of Bhaskar House (BH) and 3 Manipal of Apple House (AH); shotput: 1 Akash Hora of RH, 2 Kanav of BH and 3 Ruchar of BH; long jump: 1 Misham of AH, 2 Gautam of BH and 3 Varun of Arya Bhatt House (ABH).

Boys (under-14): 800 m: 1 Sonikbir of ABH, 2 Birgagan of RH and 3 Navjot of ABH; long jump: 1 Sonikbir of ABH, 2 Ansh of RH and 3 Madhav of ABH.

Boys (under-16): 400 m: 1 Sahil of RH, 2 Jatin of BH and 3 Parteek of BH; 800 m: 1 Tanvinder of ABH, 2 Parag of AH and 3 Rahul of BH.

Girls (under-19): Discus throw: 1 Akash of Arya Bhatt House, 2 Harshita of Rohini House and 3 Sakshi of Arya Bhatt House; 800 m: 1 Gagandeep Kaur of Bhaskar House, 2 Ramnik of Bhaskar House and 3 Sheenam of Arya Bhatt House.

Girls (under-16): 800m: 1 Aashima of Rohini House, 2 Shweta of Apple House and 3 Roshni of Bhaskar House; 400 m: 1 Vishakha of Arya Bhatt House, 2 Harshita of Rohini House and 3 Sakshi of Arya Bhatt House.

Girls (under-14): 800 m: 1 Uparika of Apple House, 2 Kamalpreet of BH and 3 Taranpreet of ABH; long jump: 1 Uparika of AH, 2 Richa of AH and 3 Isha of BH.

Punjab, Haryana advance in basketball
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, October 4
On the second day of the ongoing 19th All-India Postal Basketball Tournament being played at Guru Nanak Stadium here, Haryana circle beat Gujarat while hosts Punjab circle got the better of Orissa circle today to enter the super-league stage.

In Haryana circle's easy win (93-69) against Gujarat circle, Amit Prashar and Sanjay were the main contributors scoring 25 and 22 points, respectively, while S.V. Kolotra netted 23 points for the losers. Jaspreet Singh and Pawan Kumar chipped in with 17 and 15 points, respectively, in Punjab circle's 65-45 win over Orissa circle. Priya Ranjan with 22 points fought well for Orissa circle, but could not save his team from defeat.

In another match, West Bengal circle drubbed Rajasthan circle 81-48.