Accident Update - Phase I ( 1st Feb to 18th Feb 2007 )

This is the text from the e-mail I sent out to my friends and family on the 18th of February.

Hi

You probably already know this bit of news but I thought I’d give you an update from my perspective. Don’t know how to go about putting this in a sugar-coated manner, so I’ll be blunt.

I’ve had an accident – a pretty serious one. It involved a lorry, which passed over my right hand and dragged it a few feet. In the doctor’s words, the hand was in the state of a pulp. My wrist is unaffected but the palm and fingers were damaged beyond recognition. I believed at the moment that I’d lost my hand permanently, but subsequent surgeries and days of healing are beginning to improve the outlook.

The Accident:

The accident occurred at 7:45 AM on the 1^st of Feb. I had a meeting that morning in office, so I’d left home early. The spot was the C.V Phase 2 to Phase 1 road for those familiar with where I live. I’d just overtaken a lorry, when my Scooty hit a medium sized granite stone on the middle of the road and went out of control. I fell in front of the lorry but was spinning away all the way down, but I couldn’t finish the turn in time, which is why my right hand went under the lorry. My helmet and apparel prevented me from any other serious injuries.

The treatment:

I was taken to Chinmaya Mission Hospital immediately but folks there had no clue as to what to do so I was moved to Hosmat. I’ve been taken to the Operation Theatre three times to date. The first was on the day of the accident when the doctors did some emergency sorting and shuffling round the hand and then waited to see what would happen. The second time was more or less an examination, where we got the first bit of good news in that the blood supply was not fully affected; there was still enough of a supply to aid the growth of soft tissue of which there was almost nothing left. The third was a skin graft in which they took skin from my thigh and covered my hand. This was to reduce the possibility of infection due to an open wound.

Future?

This is my status right now. The general base of the hand has been reconstructed, though I’ve lost around 2/3rds of my thumb and have some issues with the little finger as well. Recovery is very much in progress, and the doctors are generally pleased with the healing so far. I’m back home for a while before the next procedure, the exact date of which will depend on the healing progress. I need to go every three days or so for a dressing right now, so making use of this lull in proceedings to get my left hand up to mark – this mail is my first big left handed text contribution, so I’m happy!

There is no timeframe yet for recovery nor a percentage of normalcy prediction from the doctor’s side yet – it is still way too early in the day to think of such numbers. When something of the sort pops up, I’ll update you.

My apologies for the rant. I promise my follow up mails will be much more cheerful.

Take care and keep yourself safe.

Regards

Arun C. Pullat

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