HUBBALLI: In a rare case, doctors at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital in Hubballi successfully performed faciomaxillary surgery on a nine-month-old baby boy whose face was damaged in a wolf attack.
The boy, son of Husenappa and Durgamma of Hosaritti village in Haveri district, was attacked by a wolf on the night of March 7 at their house on the outskirts of the village. The lower jaw of the kid was completely damaged in the attack and the skin was torn off. After first aid at the village primary health centre, the baby was shifted to KIMS hospital in Hubballi on March 8.
A team from the oral and maxillofacial surgery department and paediatrics department headed by Dr Manjunath Vijapur successfully performed a four-hour surgery, reconstructing the lower jaw and stitching back the skin. Now the baby can eat and drink normally.
"KIMS has performed such faciomaxillary surgery on elders, but the surgery on a nine-month-old baby has been carried out for the first time in the region. Now the baby is fine and will be discharged in a couple of days," said a doctor from KIMS.
Dr Vijapur, associate professor of the maxillofacial surgery department, said the baby’s lower jaw was completely torn off. “With the help of plates, we reconstructed the jaw and successfully stitched back the skin. After two years, there is a need for secondary correction surgery that will help the baby to grow a jaw naturally like others,” he added.
“If the jaw does not develop, we will take a bone from another part of the body and carry out a surgery that will help the jaw to grow. Later, plastic surgery will be carried out to give a scar-free face,” he added.