Doctors Successfully Remove Pierced Pencil From 6-year-old Boy’s Heart

Cardiothoracic surgical team of MaxCure Hospitals, Coimbatore, South India successfully removed a pencil that had pierced a small portion of the heart of a six-year-child, Charan.

Charan had an accidental fall in school with a sharpened pencil in his pocket, which pierced his heart.

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Dr Sameer Diwale, Chief cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at Maxcure Hospitals, Madhapur, who operated on the child said, “The pencil penetrated the heart in an oblique direction. In doing so, it missed the left breast bone in the ribs and pierced the heart muscles.”

The heart muscles of a six-year-old is only 5 mm thick. Due to the sharpness of its tip and the oblique direction of entry, the pencil went one centimeter inside the heart. Seven centimeters of the 19-cm pencil had gone into Charan's chest, and 1cm was inside the heart.

Charan was rushed to the Warangal MGM Hospital, but the doctors allowed the heart and the pencil to beat together and advised the parents to go to the Maxcure Superspecialty Hospital at Kondapur, 170 km away, as it requires specialized surgery and care.

Dr Diwale said, “Doctors at the peripheral hospital didn't try to remove the pencil. They gave antibiotics and a tetanus injection, which ensured that there was no infection. That was a very wise decision. They could gauge from the scans that there would be heavy loss of blood and it requires expert intervention.”

The hospital officials said that the procedure to remove the pencil was well planned with specialists from a host of departments contributing towards the success of the surgery.

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Source-Medindia

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