Neha Agarwal may not be able to run for the rest of her life, but she can at least walk without support soon. Even this was too much to expect after the accident that all but crippled the 22-year-old girl from Rourkella, in Orissa.

Neha was sitting on the railing of her third-floor verandah back home, chatting with friends. A sudden attack of vertigo resulted in a horrible fall, breaking her pelvis bone into several pieces and crushing the heel bones of both her legs.

After initial trauma management in Orissa, she was brought to Calcutta and admitted to ILS Multispeciality Clinic in Salt Lake by her maternal uncle, an ex-patient at the city clinic. ILS, next to City Centre in Salt Lake, specialises in laparoscopic surgery and decided to take a modern approach in handling the grave multiple injuries.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Rakesh Rajput, who has worked at length with the Bristol Royal Infirmary in the UK, chose a special minimally-invasive approach to join the fractured sacral bones. For the ?first time in eastern India?, a ?trans-cutaneous sacral fixation? was done via a one-inch-small cut, instead of a large 10-inch-long incision with the help of long screws.

?We followed the Atkins & Eastwood approach, pioneered by the Bristol institute, which does a lot of cadaver studies to arrive at new techniques to control blood supply. A different area, where blood supply is good, was preferred, to minimise skin damage and ensure quick healing,? Rajput told Metro.

The procedure was highly technical, where the screw had to pass through important structures like the ureter and different nerves under X-ray guidance. The operation was successfully performed on April 24 on the left pelvis and on April 30 on the right.

For fixing the crushed heel bones, special calcanium plates with multiple holes were required. ?As these devices are not used in India, we tried to source them from Switzerland. But time was running out and an Indian company (Swapan Surgical) bailed us out by manufacturing the plates indigenously for the first time,? the doctor said.

On May 3, the calcanium operation was successfully done with the help of these plates. The patient will be able to walk with support in another six weeks and without support in another three months. Aruna Tantia, CEO of the Salt Lake clinic, said: ?ILS is proud to have successfully performed two major operations and we will continue our pursuit of cost-effective and innovative therapies.?

Rajput felt the success of the twin procedures, with the small approach, less operation span, minimal blood loss and quick healing, augurs well for Calcutta. Pelvic and hip fractures as well as other trauma cases could be effectively addressed, with less skin complications.

?These are modern methods of fracture treatment, extensively used abroad. The possibilities are immense, more so since patients these days are so cosmetically conscious,? added Rajput.