Stories of grit & miracles
In a rare occurrence, a 61-year-old patient suffered an acute subdural haematoma or bleeding in the brain two days after being detected with dengue
Kolkata, 02.11.2022: In a rare occurrence, a 61-year-old patient suffered an acute subdural haematoma or bleeding in the brain two days after being detected with dengue. Doctors believe that while they have read about cases of dengue-induced cerebral haemorrhage in medical textbooks, none of them have ever come across such a case in recent times.
Tapan Biswas, a resident of Shahidnagar in South Kolkata, visited the OPD of AMRI Hospital Dhakuria on 27th September, 2022 with high grade fever, and was admitted after he tested positive for dengue. Dr Mahuya Bhattacharjee, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine & Critical Care, the supervising physician of Mr BIswas, said, “When Mr Biswas had come to the OPD on 27th September, he came walking by himself and had no neurological complaints.”
Although Mr Biswas was otherwise stable, from 29th September afternoon he started complaining of severe headache, suddenly lost consciousness, and slipped into coma. “He was put on ventilator and a CT scan revealed that Mr Biswas had suffered an acute subdural haematoma, which was definitely triggered by dengue,” said Dr Bhattacharjee, who had treated Dr Biswas for COVID-19 during the Delta wave. She, however, was clear that COVID-19 did not have any role to play in his recent complications.
Consultant Neurosurgeon, Dr Nirup Dutta, who lead the surgery team, said, “There was a sizeable blood clot between his brain and skull, which was putting immense pressure on the brain. We operated on him that same night and after a two-hour-long surgery managed to clear the area of any clots. We cut out a piece of the skull and put it in an abdominal pocket so that it stayed healthy and we can put it back later. We conducted the surgery while he was still in coma and he was put back on ventilator.”
Dr Dutta explained that the severity of a coma is measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale on a range of 3 to 15, with 3 being the worst and 15 being the best condition. “Mr Biswas measure 4 on the coma scale but we managed to revive him. After the surgery, he was on ventilator for seven days, after which he was extubated and discharged on 10th October,” he said. Dr Bhattacharjee pointed out that when Mr Biswas visited for his first review on 1st November, he was able to walk by himself and there are no neurological deficits