Cooker handle successfully removed from woman's head

On the 19th of Feb, 2007, Thengil Tarabai, a resident of Uralikanchan, was cooking the afternoon meal for her family when her Pressure Cooker blasted. The enormous pressure flung the cooker lid at extremely high velocity at her face, handle first. The impact drove the handle through the right eye, up through the brain, causing horrific damage. The velocity was so high that the handle broke through the top of the skull and lodged under the skin.

When she reached the Emergency ward of Jehangir Hospital she was unconscious and barely alive, with the handle lodged firmly in the head and lid protruding out of her eye cavity.

Dr Hon from Uralikanchan, where the patient was initially taken immediately directed them to Jehangir Hospital under the care of Dr. Sachin Gandhi, Brain and Spine surgeon.

Initially, stabilizing and rapidly creating a passageway for breathing were critical and a Tracheostomy was performed. It was a race against time and the patient was resuscitated in the Neuro ICU after which, she was taken up for emergency Craniotomy, removal of the handle and evacuation of the massive blood clots. Minute by minute her condition was worsening because of the swelling in the brain.

"After 5 hours of surgery we succeeded in removing the blood clots, the cooker handle and repaired the fractured skull bone, " informed Dr Sachin Gandhi, who was assisted in this Herculean task by Dr. Daddi, Plastic surgeon and Dr. Salil Gadkari - Retinal Surgeon.

"Her eye was damaged beyond repair but she survived the surgery, which was a huge achievement on part of the entire operating team and those who had initially stabilized her" added Dr Gandhi.

The next phase was equally critical and she was shifted to the Neuro ICU where a team of Neuro-intensivists monitored her continuously, for the next 96 hours.

On the evening of the 23rd of February, 4 days after the blast and surgery, she regained consciousness, opened her good eye, said she was feeling OK and was able to move her limbs in response to the doctors commands.

According to Sudhir Diggikar, CEO of the hospital, "We have no references in medical literature of an injury of this extent and nature, where a metal object 7 inches long has entered the brain at such tremendous velocity, caused such horrific damage and yet been so successfully managed".

Before Surgery	X-ray showing cooker handle lodged in the skull
News paper clipping	News paper clipping