Doctors successfully remove manja from nine-year-old boy’s wound during a difficult operation in which they had to use anaesthesia sparingly
The injured child with his father, Nisar Shaikh. Pic/Hanif Patel
A nine-year-old boy’s ankle was severely cut by a clutch of glass-coated kite manja on Sunday evening when he was playing with his friends in Vasai West. According to the child, the ground was littered with manja used for flying kites. The injury led to an immediate reconstruction surgery that lasted for nearly five hours at a multi-speciality hospital. The child is out of danger now.
ADVERTISEMENT
Besides the nine-year-old boy, a few others also got injured by kite manja, but most cases were not reported to the police. Sellers continued to sell the lethal manja on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Monday. When many birds were also critically injured.
The child told mid-day, “I was in an open ground with my elder brother and friends. They were flying kites and I was catching stray kites for them. There was a bunch of manja kept on the ground. It got entangled in a motorcycle that passed by and cut my ankle.”
The child’s 12-year-old brother saw him getting hurt and rushed to his aid. An individual who was celebrating took the children to their home home as all clinics suggested going to a big hospital.
“Since it was a Sunday, I was at home in the evening. My children came home, with my younger son crying in pain. I rushed him to a multispeciality hospital in Vasai West. The doctor told us that immediate plastic surgery was required,” said Nisar Shaikh, the boy’s father. Shaikh is a garment designer in Lower Parel
in Mumbai.
Child was critical
Dr Pravin Thorat, the owner of Appasheth Thorat Multi-speciality Hospital and Critical Centre, who treated the child, said that he was drowsy when he was brought in. “His blood pressure was plummeting,” Dr Thorat said.
“The dimensions of his wound were 3.8 cm X 1.5 cm. He was bleeding profusely but a piece of cloth tied tightly around the wound prevented further blood loss. He was critical as he had lost around 500 ml blood,” Dr Thorat told mid-day.
“The child’s injury was a radial plantar rupture near his ankle. The tibial artery with tendon was ruptured and the tendon-Achilles had a cut by a sharp object. During surgery, we removed pieces of manja wire from the wound. We had to immediately conduct a plastic surgery that lasted for more than 4.5 hours,”
he added.
“It was difficult to conduct surgery as we could not administer heavy anaesthesia to the child. We managed to successfully conduct the surgery and the child—
who was in hypotension shock due to severe blood loss—is now out of danger,” Dr Thorat said.
Many people who celebrate Makar Sankranti by flying kites use glass-coated manja to bring rivals’ kites down. The stray manja grievously injures humans and birds. In some cases, people have bled to death after getting cut on their throats.
Though Mumbai police claimed to have banned the storage and sale of Chinese manja, people have been procuring the glass-coated manja from neighbouring districts or states to fly kites. The kite strings are prepared with a special emulsion containing bits of broken glass.
Recently, a Mumbai police constable bled to death on the Vakola flyover after his neck was slit by one such manja.
Pigeons suffer too
On the other hand, in the past two days, 18 pigeons were injured in Vasai-Virar. Bird lovers have been organising free medical camps after rescuing injured pigeons who get entangled in stray manja. Sources said that a successful treatment was administered to three pigeons, while three others succumbed to their injuries. Treatment continues for the remaining pigeons.
Police in the Surat district of neighbouring Gujarat distributed free neck bands to safeguard motorcyclists, tied electric poles with a metal wire to prevent stray wires from falling on two-wheelers, and banned the movement of motorcycles on all elevated roads on January 14 and 15 to prevent injuries.
The Mumbai police registered 92 cases between December 25, 2023 and January 14, 2024, arrested 57 people and seized nylon manja worth Rs 1.43 lakh.
18
Pigeons injured in Vasai-Virar over two days
03
Pigeons who died of their injuries
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
