Lists Press

6. The First Zero-Gravity Surgery

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A team of French doctors said they successfully operated on a man in near zero-gravity conditions on a flight looping in the air like a roller coaster to mimic weightlessness. The five-man team and the patient landed safely at an airport in southwestern France after a three-hour flight, although doctors said the midair surgery to remove a cyst from the man’s arm took only about 10 minutes. Chief surgeon Dominique Martin said the near zero-gravity operation, the first on a human, was not that technically difficult, but was aimed at breaking a barrier in medical expertise.

5. Surgical Repair of a Herniating Heart: Ectopia Cordis

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Ectopia cordis (EC) is a rare malformation, occurring in 5.5–7.9 per million live births due to failure of maturation of the midline mesodermal components of the chest and abdomen such that heart remains outside the body.

Naseem Hasni was born by cesarean section on October 31st with his heart outside his chest. When Nazeem was born his heart, on the outside, the aorta went from his heart straight into his chest. Doctors wrapped his heart in Gore-Tex, plus a layer of his own skin, and gradually moved it inside his body. Doctors from the Holtz Children’s Hospital, Miami, Florida, USA, carried out corrective surgery on him and said the boy should be able to lead a nearly-normal life. He was in a ‘critical but stable’ condition. At birth, he weighed 9 pounds and 2 ounces, and was 21 inches long.

Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz, one of the surgeons who carried out the operation, said Naseem will have to avoid sports where a blow to the sternum may happen. But he will be able to take part in most other sports and activities. “Certainly the goal is as normal a childhood as he can achieve,” said Dr. Rosenkranz.

4.  Surgery of the Tree Man with Epidermodysplasia verruciformis

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Epidermodysplasia verruciformis is an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic hereditary skin disorder associated with a high risk of carcinoma of the skin. It is characterized by abnormal susceptibility to human papillomaviruses (HPVs) of the skin. The skin thus develops tree-bark like warts.

This Indonesian man had this problem. Dede’s ordeal began when he was 15 and cut his knee in an accident. A small wart developed on his lower leg and spread uncontrollably. Eventually he had to give up work as a builder and fisherman, and scratch a living by joining a local “freak show” to earn some money to raise his two children. His wife of ten years left him as it became impossible for him to support her and their two children. However, Dede’s plight was highlighted in a Discovery Channel documentary. The documentary team took American dermatology expert Dr Anthony Gaspari to Indonesia to see if he could find a cure. Dr Gaspari, of the University of Maryland, concluded Dede’s affliction was caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection usually causing only small warts. Dede’s problem was that he has an extremely rare immune system deficiency, leaving his body unable to contain the warts. The virus was therefore able to “hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells”, ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance causing tree-like growths known as “cutaneous horns”.

Quite many surgeries had been taken removing more than 1.8 kg of warts every 2 month from Dede’s body. Dr. Gaspari had to return to the US and tried to find a sponsor for very expensive treatment which costed about 10,000 USD to sent to Indonesia. With 9 month Vitamin A therapy and other necessary treatment, Indonesian surgeons again carried out the warts removing  together with the skin transplant surgery. After then, Dede was finally released to see his community again. On the day of his return, people from his village gathered around his house to share his joy and they shouted to him “Dede, you look so handsome !”. Not only being home again, Dede even has a small land field which his family bought for him with the money donated by kind-hearted people.

3. ‘LIVE’ Bullet Removed From Granny’s Brain

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Imagine living with an agonizing headache for most of your life, only to realize that you’ve had a bullet lodged in your brain for 64 years. This is exactly what happened to a Chinese grandmother, Jin Guangying, who is living headache free for the first time since she was 13, after having a rusty bullet removed from her brain.

She was shot in 1943 during the Second World War by the invading Japanese when she was taking supplies to her guerrilla father. She was shot in the head, just above her right ear, by the invading Japanese and immediately fell into a coma. The bullet had already passed through a man’s arm, losing enough momentum to remain inside her skull. Jin recovered in 3 months, but would suffer from relentless headaches for the next six decades. When she suffered from the headaches, she would sometimes babble words we could hardly understand, foaming at the mouth, and sometimes she pounded her head with her fist, said Wang Zhengping, Jin’s daughter.

While the headaches grew worse over the years, her family could not afford to take her to the doctor. Her family finally had to borrow money for an x-ray that revealed the 3cm long bullet. On May 3, 2007 after a 4 hour operation doctors removed the rusty bullet that had penetrated her brain but she amazingly was surviving till now despite enough damage. she might have died immediately, because usually the wound left by a bullet leaving the human body will be much larger than the one created when it enters, said Zhou Tang, head of surgery at the Renci Hospital of Suyang County. But surviving for over 64 years and then removing the live bullet from brain was indeed a historical success in surgery.

2.  Surgery of 2-headed Baby: Craniopagus parasiticus

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The nurse holds an Egyptian baby named Manar Maged in a hospital in the city of Banha, north of Cairo in 2005. Maged was born March 30, 2004, with a rare birth defect called craniopagus parasiticus. The defect occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins but fails to complete the process, leaving an undeveloped conjoined twin in the womb.

The 14-hour separation surgery was performed in the Nile Delta town of Benha, 25 miles north of Cairo. It was the first of its kind in the Middle East. It was extremely rare condition, there were 10 previous cases like Maged’s throughout the world reported when she underwent surgery, but Maged was the only one to survive the procedure, doctors said. After that surgery, Maged underwent five more operations to insert a valve to drain excess fluid from her brain.

The baby girl survived for almost 2 years then and appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show last year with her mother and doctors. Butat 2 year of age, Maged was found to be suffering from an infection, pneumonia and heart trouble, due to which her condition deteriorated rapidly and she failed to respond to medication and expired.

1. World’s First Awake Cardiac Bypass Surgery

Sky news of UK profiles in this film a patient undergoing a painless awake heart cardiac bypass surgery that is safe for patients who are high risk for general anesthesia, and this now throws light on the open possibility of cardiac surgery for many patients (many in their most productive years) who are termed inoperable.Dr Vivek Jawali, chief cardiovascular surgeon along with his team at Wockhardt Heart Hospital at Bangalore performed the first awake Cardiac Bypass Surgery, making them the pioneers of awake coronary bypass surgery on beating heart through full chest incisions.

This technique is a boon for patients having multifaceted medical complications, required a bypass surgery and an aortic valve replacement. His lung condition did not permit the use of a ventilator and he was high risk for general anesthesia. His only chance of survival was an open heart surgery without general anesthesia, where many thought it was impossible but yes – nothing is impossible!