In rare case, needle stuck in woman's hip for 3 years removed
For days, she searched for missing piece of needle, convinced it had fallen out...
New Delhi: In a rare and complex case, doctors extracted a needle, embedded deep for three long years, in the hip muscles of a woman, Rambha Devi, while sewing.
Three years ago, a Delhi resident, Rambha Devi, 49, deeply engrossed in her sewing, placed her needle on the bed for a moment. Distracted, she stood up to attend to something else, and then she suddenly slipped and fell back onto the bed. She felt a sharp pain and realised something was wrong.
Half of the needle was broken and was on the bed. She thought that the other half must’ve been broken off somewhere in the room.
For days, she searched for the missing piece of the needle, convinced it had fallen out. Unable to find it, she eventually gave up and went on with her life, though she constantly felt discomfort in her buttocks, which kept increasing over the years.
Three years later, when the pain became unbearable she finally decided to seek medical help, she showed multiple doctors who kept giving her painkillers. Finally, a doctor suggested an X-ray which revealed an unexpected discovery: The ‘needle’, thought lost, had been lodged deep in her muscle all along these years.
Determined to have it removed, she visited several doctors. The doctors kept saying that the needle was too deep in the muscle, there were multiple important nerves in that region and surgery near the muscle would cause a lot of bleeding, hence they refused to perform surgery on her. No one was willing to take the risk.
Finally, her long tiring journey led her to Dr Tarun Mittal, Senior Consultant in Dept of General Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi who after a thorough evaluation offered her the surgery and said, “Patient underwent imaging with X-ray and CT scan pre-operatively and carefully planned the procedure. For the surgery, they especially got a C - Arm machine - an advanced medical imaging device based on X-ray technology.”
“After taking the incision and starting dissection, it was very difficult to locate the needle. Multiple X-rays had to be taken intraoperatively to precisely locate the needle and finally, the team found the needle and extracted it in one piece, without breaking it. It was a highly complex task, but their expertise and teamwork paid off,” he explained the journey of extracting the needle.
The needle was out, and her ordeal was over, thanks to the skill and perseverance of her surgeons — Dr Tarun Mittal, Dr Ashish Dey, Dr Anmol Ahuja, Dr Tanushree, and Dr Karthik.
5This extraordinary story gives the lesson to always seek timely medical attention for unusual injuries and never ignore persistent discomfort. It also stands as a testament to medical dedication and the unexpected turns life can take.