Cuttack: Doctors at the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the SCB Medical College & Hospital (SCBMC&H) here have successfully removed a tumour from the windpipe of a 21-year-old youth from Deogarh district after putting him on Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.
The 21-year-old Rinku Lohar who after recovering from the complicated surgery was discharged from the hospital today.
Rinku was having trouble breathing and was referred to SCBMC&H by the doctors at Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla.
“Rinku Lohar had come to us on April 5. We operated on him on April 8 with ECMO support. The reason was that administration of anaesthesia was not possible at the location where the tumour was located in his windpipe. So we put him ECMO support and conducted the surgery,” said Dr Manoj Patnaik, Head of Cardiovascular Surgery, SCBMC&H.
Dr Patnaik informed that they had kept Rinku for 4-5 days in the ICU for observation.
Later, he was shifted to Ward and today he is leaving for his home after getting completely cured and has been discharged from the hospital, said Dr Patnaik.
Responding to a query from a reporter, Dr Patnaik said that we need to thank the government first as the procedure was done totally free of cost.
“ECMO support is very expensive but as per rules it was provided totally free of cost since this was done in a government hospital. Not a single pie was charged from the patient or his attendant for the surgery,” said Dr Patnaik.
Speaking to reporters, Rinku said that he had problems in breathing and was even unable to walk as he felt breathless.
“Now I am very happy. I am feeling fine after undergoing the surgical procedure with ECMO support. Today I am being discharged,” said Rinku.
Rinku’s mother thanked the doctors for her son’s life.
SCBMC&H has nine ECMO machines which were procured during the peak days of the COVID pandemic and had been lying idle since.
ECMO is a form of cardiopulmonary life-support, where blood is drained from the vascular system, circulated outside the body by a mechanical pump, and then reinfused into the circulation. While outside the body, haemoglobin becomes fully saturated with oxygen and CO2 is removed. Oxygenation is determined by flow rate, and CO2 elimination can be controlled by adjusting the rate of counter current gas flow through the oxygenator
