Mumbai: Quick thinking saves arm of boy impaled by fencing rod

Assisted by a temple priest, a carpenter cut the steel rod from its base and the two rushed the boy to a multispeciality hospital

The presence of mind of two citizens saved the arm of a 14-year-old boy in Vasai who had accidentally got impaled by a spear-shaped fence rod. The incident happened in the premises of Gayatri temple at Om Nagar, Vasai, on Saturday. After the aarti concluded at 8.30 pm Sumedh Jadhav was among the children playing on the temple premises. Sumedh had climbed the fence and slipped on the spear-shaped rods on the fence. One of the rods pierced his arm.

Besides the temple priest, among the people who had rushed to the aid of Sumedh was carpenter Sanjay Yadav who had a shop nearby. Yadav was among those who suggested cutting the rod from its base rather than extricating the boy’s arm.

Doctors removed the 4-inch spear-shaped fencing rod from the arm of Sumedh Jadhav

Yadav told mid-day, “We decided not to remove the boy’s arm from the fence as we didn’t know the amount of damage it had caused. Our shop is near the temple which made it easy for me to bring my grinder machine and tools to cut the rod from the base.” While Yadav cut the rod, the temple priest lifted the boy to ease the pressure on his arm and facilitate the cutting. The boy was then rushed to Yogyam Multispecialty Hospital, Ambadi Road Vasai West.

He said, “On reaching the hospital, the casualty ward acted swiftly making phone calls and arranging surgeons to remove the rod from his arm. By 10 pm, the boy was taken to the operation theatre and the rod was removed from his arm.” Samarth Jadhav, the boy’s father, told mid-day, “We were not aware of this accident till a local informed us that our child was rushed to Yogyam Multispecialty Hospital”

Dr Yogesh Patil, founder, director and chief orthopedic surgeon of Yogyam Multispecialty Hospital said, “Luckily the rod had gone through such a part that no major nerves and blood vessels were damaged. We surgically removed the rod and the boy was discharged.”

Appreciating the timely and wise decision taken by the local residents, Dr Patil said, “The presence of mind of the locals saved the boy’s arm from further damage. If the rod would have been removed, we would never know how severe the consequences would be. Doing so would have increased the severity of the damage.” The doctor said that the boy was fortunate that a hospital with infrastructure to handle such trauma cases was close by.

‘Never attempt to pull object out of body’

Dr Yogesh Patil, founder, director and chief orthopaedic surgeon of Yogyam Multispecialty Hospital of Yogyam said, “In such cases, the foreign object must never be removed by any person except a complex trauma surgeon. It can cause major damage to the part of the body and can also damage major blood vessels and nerve cells. These types of complex trauma cases require a team of highly-trained surgeons and hospital infrastructure.” 

4 Inches
Size of rod removed from boy’s arm

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