A fall into the abyss

If you cannot see blood, please do not read this news bulletin

At 6:30 a.m. this morning an ambulance’s siren broke Curahuasi’s sleep.  Dr Tobias Malisi and Dr Tim Boeker had an inkling that their telephones would ring any minute now.  Indeed the 32-year-old accident victim was brought into our emergency department.

That patient had several bone fractures (spine, ribs, clavicle, shoulder) and a wound of the lung through which air was escaping into the lateral part of his thorax (Pneumothorax).  But that is not everything.  Furthermore, he showed an incomplete arm palsy caused by the injury of the network of nerves in his armpit and he also had a severe facial wound.  What happened at dawn?

Whilst driving his potato-transporter the patient veered off the road and fell 200m down a hillside.  Fortunately he was wearing his seat-belt (in Peru this is not a matter of course), otherwise he probably would not have survived the crash.

A team made up of anaesthetists, accident- and general surgeons immediately took care of the patient.  After a three-hour operation Dr Reinhard Kühn and Dr Tim Boeker had given the patient his human appearance back.  We are monitoring him in the intensive care unit and his general condition is stable.  It is the second instance of a polytrauma that we took care of in the Hospital this month. /Pictures Dr Miriam Boeker

That does not look good.
After a long operation. His wounds will heal.
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