An 18-month-old girl who survived with fractured jaw after the infant’s father allegedly killed her mother and ended his life was operated upon by Osmania General Hospital doctors through a method rarely used on patients there. Because of the girl’s age, hole in her heart, and fracture in jaw, the usual method employed to administer anaesthesia could not be used. Rather than intubation by inserting a tube through mouth, they inserted it through her nose.
On January 29, M Madhu allegedly killed his wife Akhila, grievously injured the infant and ended his life. The family lived in Ramdas Thanda, Nampally, of Nalgonda district. When the police reached the spot, they found the infant struggling for life. The police suspected that the girl might have been injured accidentally.
She was admitted to Niloufer Hospital. After preliminary treatment, she was referred to OGH where doctors ruled out injury to the brain and suggested plastic surgery for facial fractures.
OGH chief anaesthesiologist R Pandu Naik said that to control respiration when patient is under anaesthesia, they insert an endotracheal tube into trachea through mouth. The process is called intubation. Since the infant’s mouth had injury, they had to insert it through nose.
“However, when we intubate through nose, we will not be able to see where the tube is going. So we took a Fibre Optic Bronchoscope which has a camera at its end, enveloped it with the endotracheal tube. This way, we were able to see where the tube is going. We never used this method on infant patients at OGH,” said Dr Naik. The procedure was performed along with professor of anaesthesia Pavani and assistant professor Jyothi. The surgery was performed on Saturday. The infant is recovering.
