Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centenarian takes hip fracture, surgery in her stride

R. Sujatha

IN FINE FETTLE: Parvathi Ammal seen after surgery with orthopaedist V. Subramanian (extreme right) and A. Gajanan Rao (left) of A.G. Hospital. — PHOTO: A. MURALITHARAN

CHENNAI : Parvathi Ammal, 101, broke her hip in a fall on October 22. Her children were worried if she could withstand surgery, and approached A. Gajanan Rao, a surgeon friend, who runs A.G. Hospital in West Tambaram.

Dr. Rao sought orthopaedist V. Subramanian's help. He examined the patient and when the ECG and blood reports showed no abnormalities he decided to go ahead. "I have operated on 43 people so far in the 90-98 age group. In my 18 years of service I had never come across a 100-year-old patient. The patient gave me confidence," says Dr. Subramanian. "She had suffered an intertrochanteric fracture of the femur left side. Her osteoporotic hip bone had broken in four places." Chief anaesthetist S. Rajendran administered spinal anaesthesia. The open reduction and internal fixation surgery was done using stainless steel dynamic hip screw on October 25. She will be discharged on Sunday. Parvathi Ammal says she was born in 1906 in the lunar month of `Thai'. The youngest of her eight children is aged 65.

Dr. Subramanian says: "She will be able to walk in three weeks."

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