Eyelid repair and a Car – Tyre Repair!

Jan, the 13th, 2014: I suppose it would be what you would call a slightly different day at work. I had just performed 5 cataract surgeries and gotten back to the out patient department, when an anxious mother entered my room with her one year old girl child. She gave a gruesome history of the child falling down and hitting her eye over a sharp stone by the roadside. Examination revealed a full – thickness eyelid tear, with the tissue dangling by a narrow saving margin. The kid needed general anesthesia and I asked the mother if they wanted to be referred to another center of ours, which was two and a half hours away. Since she was anxious, we called our own anesthetist

and I got started right away. (photo shows a similar picture and does not belong to this patient)

On table, under anesthesia, I examined her well (she wouldn’t let me touch her at the outpatient department). Other than the eyelid – tear, the rest of her eye was normal (thank God). What followed was a ‘grey – line’ approximation, and mattress sutures, followed by progressively superficial layers of suturing up to the skin. Total procedure took an hour. Finally, content with the job, I admitted the patient for observation after prescribing systemic antibiotics and painkillers in the form of a tonic.

The next thing on my mind was to finish a few more important cases at the OPD before a good lunch at home. Unfortunately, fate decided to play a different hand. When I was about to leave for home, I noticed my car had a flat (rear right tyre). Following this I had no other choice but to have lunch at the hospital, after arranging for one of the staff at workplace (Mohan, who had run the marathon with me) to change the punctured tyre. By the time I had finished my meal, the punctured tyre was off the ‘Ritz’. Then came the screwing in of the spare tyre. After this, I went along with Mohan to bring the spare tyre to normal pressure and to get the punctured one patched up. Phew! Long day, but successful.

(And oh, the cause of the flat was a screw by the way – seriously?)