Coimbatore :

A 26-year old woman, who had her scalp torn off by a machine in a gold jewellery making firm, had a surgery done at Coimbatore Medical College and returned home with her face intact.

Ashwini, wife of Senthilkumar from Selvapuram, walked out of the hospital two days after surgery. She spoke to the media freely thanking the doctors who stitched her scalp back on her head.

“The incident happened on May 8 at 6 pm when I was working in the factory and there was no one else. During my work an ornament fell from my hand and I just bent down to get it. All of a sudden my long hair was caught in the machine and got wrapped round the drill,” said Ashwini.

She said she still remembered everything and she shivered each time she recalled what had happened.

“I was pulled out of the machine. I tried to run but I saw my scalp with hair lying next to me. I screamed and someone came running to the spot. They stopped the machine and took me to hospital,” added Ashwini.

She is all smiles now and she thanks God and the doctors in CMCH. She reached the hospital soon after the accident and the surgery brought her “back to life”.

“With high BP and heavy blood loss the patient was in a critical state and her pulse rate was low. So we immediately resuscitated her with three units of blood and intravenous fluid transfusion. Once her condition was stabilized we took her to the operation theatre for an emergency plastic surgery,” said B Asokan, professor and head of Plastic Surgery Department, who led the surgery with doctors Siva Kumar and Senthil Kumar.

The operation lasted three hours. The doctors said similar cases were increasing. “Necessary safety measures must be taken at the work place to prevent accidents and immediate care must be provided in case of accidents,” added Asokan.

What the doctors called ‘fortunate’ was even though the scalp was torn off there were not much damage to the tissue or vessels and it was easy for the doctors to do the surgery without transplanting tissues from other parts of her body.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / June 11th, 2015