A six-year-old boy from Bihar who reached Lucknow with a severely torn liver and nearly two litres of blood accumulated inside his abdomen, has survived after emergency surgery and intensive multidisciplinary trauma care at the Apex Trauma Centre of Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).
Doctors found a Grade IV liver injury, one of the more severe categories of blunt liver trauma. With the bleeding continuing, doctors had to take the child for emergency surgery the same day. The Trauma Surgery team, led by Prof Amit Kumar Singh, additional chief, Apex Trauma Centre, with senior resident Dr Aditya Singh, operated on the child to control the bleeding and stabilise the damaged liver. The postoperative period was equally crucial. Doctors monitored the child for recurrent bleeding, infection, respiratory complications and other problems associated with major abdominal trauma. After being weaned off ventilatory support, Krishna showed gradual clinical improvement. He continued to receive multi-disciplinary care and monitoring until doctors considered him stable enough to leave the hospital. A Grade IV liver injury with active bleeding is a potentially fatal trauma, particularly in a young child. Such injuries can rapidly lead to haemorrhagic shock and require immediate access to trauma surgery, anaesthesia, blood-loss management and intensive care. The child was referred from Bihar to Lucknow for specialised trauma management, underlining the role of the SGPGIMS Apex Trauma Centre as a referral facility for patients with complex injuries from Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states.
After 18 days at the Apex Trauma Centre, he was discharged on August 19 in satisfactory condition.
