Thursday, December 3, 2009

Ptosis Surgery.

All excited, having slept only 2 hours at night, woken up at 6am to drop kurush at the station, this girl, me, left for Dr. Aphale's eye hospital at 8 after a heavy breakfast for a video shoot of the rare ptosis operation.
Half sleepy, half exited, i hurriedly got ready, collected the handycam and digi cam and ran to join mom at the hospital. The anasthetist had already arrived and we got ready in cap and masks. till then, the other doctor arrived who happened to be an orthopaedic surgeon. when i came to know the patient was a small girl of 5 years with drooped eyelids, i ran to take a pre-operation photograph. As i was at it, the operation theatre was undergoing the final touch ups and we all entered the operation theatre.
As we entered the theatre, the little girl got so scared that she started crying and screeming at the top of her voice. It created a huge havoc in the hospital which irritated all the three doctors. The first job was of the anasthetist to give her general anaesthesia. she was trying to catch up all the possible veins but in vain! This act was going on for an hour and we all got into sweat since all the anaesthesia was getting out of the vein. Now, only one vein was left to be caught and had it not been caught, it seemed, by the looks of the doctors that it would have been a panic situation. But it did get caught and the anaesthesia flowed in the girl and finally stopped her shrieks.
Now, the orthopaedic put 4-5 needles into the girls thigh like a murderer would stab his enemy. i was statled at the looks of it and as i started taking the video, the doctor told me to wait, wonder why ;-)
then he took a blade (mind well, surgical blade) and make a big incision on the thigh. he cut through the skin and the muscles and reached a strong tissue called fascia-something which holds the strong thigh muscles. he cut a 3 mm width and 10cm length tissue and put it in saline.
All this time, i was wondering that it was a ptosis operation and why the hell was the thigh been cut. then i guessed that this might be the tissue to be grafted on the eye-lid. i was too scared by the tense and silent atmosphere to ask questions and since i was the only one who knew the least over there!
the orthopaedic doctor stitched the cut on the theigh and mopped the blood, removed his gown and left.
Now was the main operation. Dr. Aphale put the local anasthesia on the eye about 5-6 times till it got a good hold. the general anasthesia and the oxygen pump was being pumped occasionally.
The eye lid was to be lifted up and Dr. Aphale put herself at hard work. with 6 incisions on the eyelip and forehead and the strips of muscles being pulled by the needle and forceps the artistic hand of Dr. Aphale worked its way for an hour into a successful surgery.
All this time i was up holding my camera and by the end of the operation my shoulders and back had started paining. Durring the video shoot, my mind used to get so engrossed in the surgery that i was forgetting that i was holding the camera so i dont think i was perfect at my wook today. i simply love surgeries..
working without electricity was a pain for all the doctors. It was a great experience though.

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