Child survives fall, rod in head

NAVI MUMBAI: Call it a stroke of luck or timely medical help, but a two-and-a-half-year-old boy survived after falling into an open manhole and being pulled out with a two-feet-long rusted iron rod impaled in his head on Thursday. The child, Rahul Singh, was walking to his tuition class along with his mother and two elder brothers on Thursday when he fell into the manhole in Sector 19, Kamothe, near Panvel.He is recuperating in the intensive care unit of MGM Hospital in Kamothe.
"The authorities should have covered the manhole. He is suffering so much pain for no fault of his," said his father Sangram as he sat by Rahul's bedside. He recalled how he and his wife feared the worst when they saw a bleeding Rahul with the rod piercing his head.
Prompt action by passers-by saved Rahul
Sangram Singh and his wife Kirandevi were anxiety personified on seeing their son Rahul's injury. Incidentally, Sangram runs a business in iron grills and says he was even more worried as he had knowhow of scrap material and could tell that the twisted rod that had pierced his son's head was rusted.
Retracing the ill-fated day, Rahul's mother Kirandevi said that around 4 pm they were walking to the tuition class, a 10-15 minute walk from their home. "I usually carry Rahul or he sits on his brother's bicycle. But as fate would have it, he insisted on walking that day," she said.
Kirandevi said she and her other sons were walking ahead, when they realised that Rahul was still lagging behind. She turned back only to watch him fall into the open manhole. "I screamed ���babu don't', but it was too late," said Kirandevi. She yelled for help and pulled Rahul out with the help of passersby. She then rushed to call her husband from his shop nearby, while strangers rushed him to the nearby MGM Hospital.
Doctors said the fact that Rahul was rushed to hospital in the nick of time and that eyewitnesses didn't try to pull out the rod probably saved his life. "The brain is made up of soft tissues and a delay could have meant edema (swelling), bleeding or permanent neurological damage causing paralysis, speech or other problems. The rod had entered about three to four centimetres deep into the right side of his brain (the tempo-parietal region)," said Dr Tanweer Karim, a lecturer of surgery at MGM Hospital. Unfortunately for the Singhs, the neurosurgeon wasn't available, and Rahul's emergency demanded immediate attention.
The surgery team headed by surgeon Margaret Topno and anaesthetists rushed Rahul into the operation theatre. He was put under general anaesthesia, a craniotomy (surgical procedure in which a part of the skull is removed to reach the brain) performed and the rod carefully removed from his head.
Two hours later, he was wheeled into the intensive care unit. Doctors say Rahul is able to recognise his parents. "Being a right hander, the left part of his brain controls his motor and sensory skills. Since the rod entered the right part, we are hoping there won't be much damage to his skills," said Dr Topno.
"I hope they cover the manhole, so that no other parent has to relive our trauma," said Kiran Devi. When TOI visited the site nearly 24-hours later, the manhole still laid uncovered.