In rare surgery, AIIMS doctors take out needle from infant’s eye

Punita said the child had got her hands on the needle during one unsupervised moment that day in their Okhla home. “I still cannot figure how since the needle was kept well out of her reach,” Punita said.

Within a flash, her daughter had fallen on the bed. The needle, which was in her hands, had gone through her right eye. “We rushed Kumkum to the ESI Hospital in Okhla as that was the nearest,” Punita said. But one look at Kumkum and the doctors referred her to AIIMS. “I was scared to pull out the needle,” her mother recounted.

The child was brought to the hospital by 4.40 pm — two hours after the accident, and by 6 in the evening, she was on the operation table. Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery Dr Deepak Gupta said, “Kumkum was bleeding heavily by the time she was brought to us.” An X-ray of the skull and other scans showed the needle had entered the brain through the right orbit (eye globe).

The surgery went on for nearly two hours and five doctors — Deepak Gupta, Shailesh Jain, Pankaj Ailawadhi, Kapil Dev Soni and Radhakrishanan Ramchandani — were able to take out the needle without any damage to either the brain or the eye. Trauma Centre head Dr M C Mishra said: “The child responded well to treatment. We checked the vision in both eyes and it is normal.”

There is one lesson the Jha family has learnt: never leave your child alone. Dr Mishra added: “A child should not be left unsupervised, that too near sharp objects. It was good the family did not make any attempt to remove the needle. That would have made things worse.”

At the moment, Kumkum is a little irritated with the swelling in her eye. Punita said: “I can’t wait for her to be up and about. I am not leaving her out of my sight again.” She will take her daughter home on Sunday.