Unable to Afford Medical Treatment, Dubai Carpenter Flies to India With Severed Thumb

29 Nov, 2021 15:01 IST

A 34-year-old Indian carpenter flew to Delhi with a severed thumb wrapped in a bandage after 22 hours of the incident since he couldn't afford medical treatment in Dubai. 

A two-hour wait would have significantly lowered the odds of recovery. Sandeep, a Rajasthan native, lost his left thumb in September while working on a saw machine. His poor finances prevented him from receiving treatment in Dubai. The thumb was placed between the fingers and covered in a bandage by the doctors.

The family brought him to Aakash Healthcare, which was the closest hospital to the airport, when he arrived in India.

"Within 10 minutes of arriving at the hospital, we had him in for surgery." The treatment, known officially as reimplantation,' took six hours to complete and was performed under regional anesthetic.   This is a very specialised procedure that involves the use of micro sutures and micro equipment," said Dr. Aashish Chaudhry, Director, and Head of the Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement Department.



The physicians extracted a vein from the forearm to replace the destroyed arteries of the thumb. According to Chaudhry, the patient has healed nicely and will be able to return to work in a fortnight. Doctors described it as an unique procedure since an amputated thumb may only be properly reattached within 24 hours if it is kept cold or surrounded by ice. Sandeep is fortunate to have arrived at the hospital in time. A two-hour wait would have reduced the chance of full recovery to 20-30%, they claimed.

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