A 25-year-old woman who was flung off a bike after her bag became entangled with a passing bus has lost her right arm from elbow to palm. Doctors treating her said she will need an artificial limb in the future.
Pratisruti Roy Chowdhury underwent a two-hour surgery on Wednesday, during which her right arm was preserved from the shoulder to the elbow.
“She required a procedure called disarticulation of the elbow joint. Her forearm, which had been completely severed in the accident and had non-viable tissue by the time she arrived at the hospital, could not be salvaged. However, the upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, could be preserved,” said Indranil Biswas, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Narayana Hospital, Barasat.
Disarticulation of the elbow joint is performed in cases of severe trauma to remove the forearm while keeping the upper arm intact. The procedure involves separating the humerus from the radius and ulna at the elbow.
“Her next step will be fitting an artificial limb, which can be considered after about two months,” Biswas said.
“During the surgery, we covered the exposed bones with muscle, removed non-viable tissue, and applied a VAC dressing,” he added.
Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy, also known as Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT), is a standard medical technique used to support healing in complex wounds.
Biswas said that in four to five days, the medical team plans to perform another procedure to place a skin graft on the woman’s elbow.
Pratisruti and her friend Soumyadeep Roy were on their way to her office in New Town when her bag was snagged on a protruding part of the bus, which came dangerously close to the bike.
Pratisruti was thrown off the bike and dragged for several metres before her right arm came under the bus wheels. Her severed arm lay on the road for some time before police recovered it and took it to the hospital.
The police said the bus on route EB-12, which has been impounded by officers of Eco Park police station, will undergo a mechanical test to determine whether the crash resulted from a mechanical fault or human negligence.
The police will also record Soumyadeep’s statement to establish the exact sequence of events that led to the accident.