Pune boy falls from 60 feet; doctors save his life

Two-and-a-half-year-old Rajpurohit got a second lease of life, thanks to the doctors at Jehangir Hospital. The boy fell off the window of his third-floor residence, from a height of nearly 60 feet, in the city on July 23.

His family rushed him to a nearby hospital from where he was directed to Jehangir for further treatment.

"When he arrived at Jehangir he was in a very critical condition. He had multiple fractures and internal injuries. We could detect neither his pulse nor his blood pressure. The child was bleeding profusely through his wind pipe," said paediatric intensivist Dr Sagar Lad.

He was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit. "After an hour, the doctors were able to revive him and stabilise him enough to record his pulse and blood pressure. A CT scan showed a fracture of the skull bone, severe brain swelling, trauma to the left lung and multiple fractures of the left arm," Lal said.

Neurosurgeon Dr Prashant Khandelwal suggested that conservative management was the best option given his highly unstable condition.

The boy was put on a ventilator and managed with medication to reduce the brain swelling. He went through a very stormy period in the next five days. The brain swelling continued to increase creating a significant risk of sudden cardiac arrest. He threw intermittent convulsions.

The team's efforts paid off and his condition finally stabilised. This allowed orthopaedic specialist Dr Amit Kamat to treat the fractures on his left arm fracture. He was discharged on August 6.

He could recognise people and understand commands. However, he was not speaking due to the extent of brain damage. "Given his age, he will recover his speech with time," Lad said.