A small artery had begun to bleed after the blood transfusion when the patient's blood pressure normalized. Despite the very difficult site of bleeding, the surgeon managed to perform good haemostasis (a process to prevent and stop bleeding) and once again the patient started to stabilise.

To prepare for the possibility of further bleeding, the surgeon packed the liver with compresses to be removed in a "second look" operation after stabilisation – hopefully.  

Intensive care

To everyone’s amazement, the patient once again woke up very rapidly from the anaesthesia, considering the fact he had lost the total amount of his blood volume, which we had replaced with blood units. Later that day, we were able to transfer him to the intensive care unit for further surveillance. It wasn’t over, however.

The following days kept us occupied with his elevated renal and potassium levels, most likely due to the massive blood loss and numerous blood-transfusions.

He was also still tachycardic, with an elevated heart rate, and breathing heavily.  

But, he wasn’t bleeding anymore. And, after a few days, when he had stabilised more, we took him back to the operating theatre for the second look operation and there was no bleeding to be found anymore in the abdomen.

So, we could remove the packing and close the abdominal wound completely. We were also able to fix his broken leg during the same anaesthesia. 

A miraculous recovery

The fact that the patient ever survived all of this, from what was pretty much a certain death sentence, still amazes me and I guess is nothing short of a miracle.

In the end, I was filled with gratitude for having worked with such competent and skilful people, who weren’t ready to give up on the patient in the darkest of moments and instead persistently kept on going.

It was a group effort on many different levels, to say the least. 

We  are  finalizing  our  upcoming issue  and  have  a  deadline  of  December 20th,2020 so  please  submit your manuscript on or before the above mentioned date.

Submit manuscript at https://www.scholarscentral.org/submissions/clinical-experimental-surgery.html or send as an e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at ejmaces@medischolars.com

With regards

Angelina Mathew

Editor-in-chief | Archives of Clinical and Experimental Surgery

What Sapp: +13158602542