Chennai: Driven to the brink of despair by his bullying seniors, a teenaged boy consumed phenol to try and end his life. But, as fate would have it, he was left to battle for life with a destroyed gullet, throat and windpipe for seven years. City surgeons saved his life by creating a ‘food pipe’ with his large intestine and he is now able to eat and drink. Vijay Arasu was aged 17 when he decided to end his life after his seniors ill- treated him during a kabaddi game by urinating on his face at the government school, B Mallapuram in Dharmapurai.
Complicated surgeries – Pharyngocolic Anastomosis (joining the throat with the large intestine) and Gastrocolic Anastomosis (in which the lower end of the big intestine is connected to the stomach) and colocolic Anastomosis - were performed by a team led by Dr J. S. Rajkumar, chairman, Lifeline Hospitals, in a marathon session that lasted six hours.
“Five operations were performed on him at Dharmapuri, Salem and hospitals in Karnataka but to no avail. He could hardly eat or drink anything. We lost all hope on Vijay and with the drowning of our second son few years ago, we wanted to end our miserable lives,” Vijay’s father, bus conductor Tamilarasu, said.
“I could hardly cook or eat as I was very depressed over Vijay’s condition. At times I felt suicida. When we met Dr. Rajkumar he assured that he would make my son eat and drink and he did it,” misty eyed Vijaya, the patient’s mother, told this correspondent on Sunday.
“Although a permanent tracheostomy tube is the only way out for his breathing, we promised the parents that we would get their son to eat and speak. We began by mobilising his large intestine and creating a tube out of it, which we took up into the chest in lieu of his destroyed gullet,” Dr Rajkumar explained.
He and his team were able to join the large intestine with the lower part of the throat and this allowed Vijay to take milk, idly, idiappam and banana for the first time after seven years. He was discharged from the Lifeline Multi Specialty Hospital about nine days ago following hospitalisation for about 12 days.
“More than the surgeons’ skills, it was a miraculous recovery. Our next plan is to make him speak through voice prosthesis. He may take about three months to speak normally,” Dr Rajkumar added.
Doctors Anirudha, Akbar, Seshank, Venkat, Sanjay and Sampath were part of the team. In a rare gesture, the hospital waived the cost of the surgery.
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