In a first of its kind, doctors at Sunrise Hospital, Kakkanad, here, have successfully performed a bloodless bowel surgery in a patient with profuse bleeding and a very low haemoglobin level of two gm/dl.
The patient, M.A. Shaji from Kannamaly, referred from another hospital, was diagnosed with enteric fever and bleeding from small intestine.
Though blood transfusion was necessary to correct haemoglobin and to perform surgery for arresting the bleeding, the patient and relatives have refused any form of blood and blood product infusion as they belonged to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
However, despite being very risky, the team of doctors decided to do the surgery and could successfully complete it.
Even in post-operative period, the patient was not given blood or blood products. Later, his haemoglobin level started going up and the bleeding completely stopped.
The patient was discharged and healthy now with haemoglobin of eight gm/dl. Dr. R. Padmakumar, medical director of the hospital said that the surgery was the rarest of the rare and a surprise in medical history.
“Not giving blood transfusion or blood products prior, during or after surgery to a patient with such low haemoglobin level has so far been unimaginable in medical profession,” he said.
The team led by Dr. Padmakumar included Dr. Madhukar Pai, Dr. Sanjeev Thampi, Dr. Sreevalsan, Dr. Sheetal Binu, Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan and Dr. Sooraj.