Friday 16 March 2012

Update

This is a bit of a rarity, but I have an update on the young man who had a meat cleaver embedded in his face (read about it here).  If you are squeamish, you may want to skip this one.  Oh, stop retching you big baby.  It isn't THAT gory!

I saw him for follow-up in my office a few days later, and his wound had healed beautifully (if I do say so myself).  Unfortunately he had suffered some major nerve damage to 3 of the 5 branches of his facial nerve (which controls all movement of the face).  I sent him to a plastic surgeon for a consultation (since nerve repairs like this are very complex and very highly-specialised).  The plastic surgeon happily took on this difficult case, and he took him back to the operating room.

The scar went directly across three branches of the nerve (temporal, zygomatic, and buccal branches).  The three severed nerves were identified and repaired successfully.

It was a very elegant repair of the nerves, and I give full credit to my colleague for the procedure.  If only all of my patients could have such a nice outcome.

UPDATE 3/20/12: I have decided to take down these pictures because I did not take them myself.

9 comments:

  1. Very classy of you to tip your hat to your fellow surgeon. And yes he did an amazing job, it looks almost as if they weren't ever severed.

    But keep in mind, your work contributed to the overall success of both surgeries.

    Have a great day doc,
    Kip

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very impressive on both your parts. Never knew someone could look good as new after something so traumatic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Doc,
    I've read all of your posts so far and you have quite a few pictures, and I was just curious, do you bring your camera to work everyday or what?

    P.S. I'm a big fan of yours :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Doc, I like reading your blog posts. But isn't putting up the pictures of your patients breaching confidentiality?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you can identify any of the patients in any of the pictures, I'll take them all down immediately.

      It's only a breach of confidentiality if the patient is identified in any way. As you can see, I've censored the pictures, there are no names, and no identifying features at all.

      Delete
    2. But what if that guy in the pictures stumble onto your blog? O.O

      Delete
    3. I've decided to take the pictures down, not because the patient is identified, but because I didn't take the pictures. The plastic surgeon who performed the operation sent them to me, and I have to respect his privacy as well.

      Delete
    4. I wasn't being mean though. I just thought it's unsafe for you to upload his pictures.

      Delete

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