Rare surgery at GMCH: Doctors stitch man’s severed feet, say he will be fine soon

He was rushed to the hospital within an hour of the injury. While his right foot was completely severed, and was brought separately by his relatives, his left foot was attached to his leg by a mere tag of skin.

Dr Mitesh Bedi, a plastic surgeon, Dr Sidharth Garg, a vascular surgeon, and Dr Rohit Jindal, an orthopaedician, performed a ten-hour long surgery to fix his feet back with his legs. Reimplantation of both the feet was done, involving repairs of bones, small blood vessels, nerves, muscles and tendons. The doctors said, the patient was doing well at present, with both his feet in good condition.

According to doctors, surgical intervention for both the limbs is an extremely rare procedure, and has several challenges and complexities. Dr Mitesh Bedi said, “We enquired from PGIMER and found out that no such case has come there in the past decade. Very few of such isolated cases have been reported globally in the medical literature.’’

Dr. Sidharth Garg said that such surgeries provide the patient a chance to live a near normal life in future. ‘’Although in this case, the patient might have to get some more procedures done, but being a labourer, who has to be on his feet all the time, this surgery is a gift of life for him. He is in the ICU now and he will be fine very soon.”

The treatment was provided free of cost to the patient.