bloodrayne
02-26-2004, 02:34 PM
15cm blade stuck in face
NEW DELHI - An Indian woman with a 15cm blade embedded in her face is recovering after a painstaking five-hour operation to remove it.
The woman arrived at a hospital in Kerala state with the handle and the rest of a 25cm knife protruding from just below her right nostril.
Doctors took five hours to remove the knife from the woman's face. The X-ray shows the blade, which almost reached her jugular vein.
The point of the blade, apparently thrust into her face by her alcoholic husband, had reached the base of her right ear and was almost touching her jugular vein, the BBC reported.
Dr R.C. Sreekumar, the assistant professor of surgery who led the operation in the town of Thiruvananthapuram, said the procedure had been extremely perilous. 'If we had removed the knife in a hurry, the jugular vein would most certainly have been cut, resulting in instant death,' he said.
Dr Sreekumar and a team of specialists - including a general surgeon, an ear, nose and throat specialist and a dental surgeon - consulted for an hour on the best way to proceed.
They decided to remove the knife in two parts - first the handle, then the blade.
There was some initial internal bleeding with the removal of the blade, but the doctors stopped it by tying up a carotid artery.
The surgeons believe the operation has broken the record for removing outsized objects lodged in a human face.
Their report on the operation has been forwarded to several international medical journals.
Doctors say the 25-year-old woman's face will not be seriously disfigured.
NEW DELHI - An Indian woman with a 15cm blade embedded in her face is recovering after a painstaking five-hour operation to remove it.
The woman arrived at a hospital in Kerala state with the handle and the rest of a 25cm knife protruding from just below her right nostril.
Doctors took five hours to remove the knife from the woman's face. The X-ray shows the blade, which almost reached her jugular vein.
The point of the blade, apparently thrust into her face by her alcoholic husband, had reached the base of her right ear and was almost touching her jugular vein, the BBC reported.
Dr R.C. Sreekumar, the assistant professor of surgery who led the operation in the town of Thiruvananthapuram, said the procedure had been extremely perilous. 'If we had removed the knife in a hurry, the jugular vein would most certainly have been cut, resulting in instant death,' he said.
Dr Sreekumar and a team of specialists - including a general surgeon, an ear, nose and throat specialist and a dental surgeon - consulted for an hour on the best way to proceed.
They decided to remove the knife in two parts - first the handle, then the blade.
There was some initial internal bleeding with the removal of the blade, but the doctors stopped it by tying up a carotid artery.
The surgeons believe the operation has broken the record for removing outsized objects lodged in a human face.
Their report on the operation has been forwarded to several international medical journals.
Doctors say the 25-year-old woman's face will not be seriously disfigured.