Doctors remove metal pipe from Karnataka man's chest after two-and-half hour operation

Hubballi: Dayanand Badagi (27), a truck cleaner and resident of Sirsi is lucky to survive and tell his tale today.

A three-diameter metal pipe had pierced through his left lung, just four-five centimetres away from his heart, in an accident that took place on National Highway-48 near Ranebennur on October 2.

Doctors at the Karnataka Medical College and Research Institute (KMC-RI), the lifeline of North Karnataka, in an operation which went on for two-and-half hours, successfully removed the one-metre long pipe from his chest.

He is currently recovering at the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and is expected to be shifted to the ward in a day or two.

The doctors from the emergency department, cardiothoracic surgeons, radiologists, anaesthesia and others have given a second life to Dayanand.

On October 2 at around 4:45 am Dayanand along with his driver brother was transporting copra from Pune to Bengaluru when their truck skidded off the road and crashed into the roadside railings.

In the accident, a metal pipe pierced his chest, damaged the lungs and ribs causing a huge amount of blood loss.

Dayanand was rescued by the highway police personnel, ambulance and firefighters, who cut the metal pipe from the railings and thankfully did not pull it out of his chest.

He was first shifted to a private hospital in Davangere, where he received primary treatment and was referred to a multi-speciality hospital in Hubballi.

By noon, he was shifted to KMC-RI, which is around 150 km from Davangere, where the doctors were prepared to operate on him.

The head of the surgical department Dr Ramesh Hosmani said that the patient was in semi-conscious condition when he was brought to KMC-RI.

“Conducting a CT-Scan and others was difficult because of the position of the pipe in the chest. An X-ray and ultrasound was conducted to find that a nail was attached to a metal pipe,” he said.

“We had to stop the functioning of the damaged lung and perform the operation. The operation was risky due to the proximity of the metal pipe to the heart. We had kept expert doctors on standby in case of requirement. After two and a half hours of operation, we removed the metal pipe and made sure that the pierced lung had minimal damage. The broken ribs will take time to rejoin naturally,” said Hosmani.

KMC-RI Director S F Kammar said that despite October 2 being a government holiday, all the experts attended to the patient and saved him.

Nearly seven bottles of blood were arranged for the operation in no time, he said, adding that the biggest challenge for the doctors and patient is now to prevent any kind of infection to the operated organs.

Shivanand Badagi, the victim’s brother, thanked the KMC-RI doctors for saving his brother that too at free of cost.

Doctors Nagaraj Chandi, Vijay Kamat, Vinayak Byateppanavar, Vasanth Tegginmani, Veena Maradi, K M Kattimani and others were part of the operating team.