Man emerges from hip surgery with 10-cm burn injury

After spending months painstakingly collecting funds for a surgery a 35yearold man who has suffered from crippling pain for four years was wheeled into the operation theatre OT at KEM Hospital for a right hipreplacement surgery on December 19 Any relief that he might have felt at the completion of a long and trying process of treatment disappeared within hours of being wheeled out when the man realised that the surgery to fix his hip had left behind something that he hadnrsquot bargained for mdash a large burn injury on his left thigh Singed byu00a0surgery Cautery pads are usually placed to prevent excessive bleeding but some kind of technical snag heated them excessively during Anwarrsquos surgery burning a large patch of his skin PicNaveen Nair Whatrsquos more doctors involved in the surgery were oblivious of the matter learning of it only after the patient complained of pain and a burning sensation When the injury was subsequently reported the junior doctors allegedly tried to pass it off as a bedsore but later admitted to their negligence Trying times Anwar Badshah 35 a resident of Mumbra worked as a driver Four years ago he started experiencing pain while walking or sitting and so consulted several doctors but there was no improvement in his condition After being bedridden for almost four years he finally approached doctors at KEM hospital Dr Pradeep Bhosale head of the orthopaedic department at KEM hospital diagnosed the problem and informed Anwar that he required hip replacement surgery Anwar was admitted to the hospital on August 4 this year and the first surgery was performed almost two months later on September 26 Since Anwar didnrsquot have sufficient funds he had to wait for the second surgery on his right hip He finally managed to pay up and was given a December 19 date lsquoBurningrsquo issue At the operating table Anwarrsquos left thigh was placed between two cautery pads which are used to control excess bleeding during surgeries While operating upon him doctors failed to notice that the pad placed below his left hip was emitting excessive heat owing to some kind of defect This left a big burnt patch on his left thigh Anwar who was administered anaesthesia below his hip for the surgery did not realise that he had been burnt till almost two hours had passed after the operation He said ldquoWhen gradually the effect of the anaesthesia started to wear off I realised that I was experiencing more pain on the left side rather than on my right hip where the surgery had been performed I immediately complained of a burning sensation and pain to my wife Parveenrdquo Parveen then noticed that her husbandrsquos left thigh had an 810 cmlong patch of burnt skin right next to the stitches from the first surgery She immediately informed one of the junior doctors outside the OT The doctor examined the wound and claimed it was a bed sore When Parveen denied the possibility arguing that there was no such wound when her husband had been wheeled in for the surgery senior doctors came and examined the wound Parveen said ldquoInitially the junior doctors tried to underplay the issue and called it a bed sore but I went ahead and complained to the senior doctors Dr Bhosale arrived and examined the wound and accepted that it was a burn caused during the surgery due to some cautery pad He also reprimanded the junior doctors for their negligence and asked them to take care of the burnrdquo She added ldquoIn spite of the instructions issued by their senior the doctors didnrsquot attend to the wound in the past six days I personally applied an ointment and kept cleaning the wound as there was continuous formation of pus I was afraid that my husband would develop an infection adding to our problemsrdquo lsquoNo serious matterrsquo Last afternoon a group of specialist doctors and some junior doctors came to check the wound They cleaned it and put a bandage over the area A junior doctor attending to Anwar said on condition of anonymity ldquoThe burn was caused due to some fault in the cautery machine This usually does not occur during surgeries when the cautery pad is used to control bleeding The pad placed below Anwarrsquos left hip got overheated and caused a superficial burn It is not a very serious issue and we are attending to the patientrsquos grievancerdquo The doctors have written a letter to the dean regarding this issue and even the engineers have been told to rectify the problem with the cautery machine The Other Side Dr Sandhya Kamath dean of KEM hospital said ldquoI have been informed about the patient by the concerned department It is a superficial burn that was caused by the cautery pad The pad is not faulty However the burn must have been caused due to change of position during the surgery or voltage fluctuation I am looking into the matter and it will be resolved as soon as possiblerdquou00a0