Patna, Sept. 13: Five-year-old Chandni’s right eyelid was detached after she met with an accident last month. Doctors were unable to protect her eye until plastic surgeon Dr Ratan Sharma came to her rescue and saved her.

A biker had hit Chandni in Farda village of Munger on August 7. In the accident, Chandni’s detached right eyelid moved to her cheek. In the course of several treatments from Munger to Patna, doctors stitched Chandni’s eyelid near her cheek. Subsequent referrals to other hospitals, however, could not help discern her case. Dr Sharma, who performed a surgery on Chandni last Sunday, said earlier treatments actually helped her case.

Sharma told The Telegraph on Monday: “It was difficult to identify the 2cm-layer of the eyelid. An eyelid has seven layers and it was quite tough to reconstruct all the damaged layers after finding and identifying them. It took around three hours just to identify the layers. Not only was identification a problem, but she also needed several stitches in an extremely small area. There was hardly any space to work during the surgery.”

General physicians in Munger, in their attempt to stop the bleeding, had stitched Chandni’s eyelid, mistaking it as a part of her flesh, near her cheek. However, the family decided to take the child to eye specialists at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, her eye was oozing fluid. Unable to do anything, the Bhagalpur doctors referred her to Patna Medical College and Hospital, where doctors, unable to discern that the eyelid was stitched on to the girl’s face, advised Chandni’s father Anil Kumar to take her to Mumbai.

A daily wage labourer, Anil, meanwhile, heard about Dr Sharma and took his daughter to the plastic surgeon.

Dr Sharma said although the eyelid was stitched in the wrong place, it had continued to receive blood supply, letting it stay alive. He added that it helped Chandni’s case as had the eyelid died, it would have led to further complications. Chandni’s eye infection also helped, he said.

“It was good for us that Chandni had developed an infection for which fluid was coming out of her eye. For this, her right eye did not dry up. If the wound dries after an injury, it becomes difficult to operate on it after a few days.”

Dr Sharma performed the surgery at the Kankerbagh nursing home of gynaecologist Dr Sheela Sharma.