“ Miracle in Jerusalem » headlined the newspaper Jerusalem Post on May 13. It is indeed an almost hopeless case that the doctors at Hadassah Medical Center were confronted with: a 46-year-old man with a 50-centimeter-long metal rod embedded diagonally in his skull.
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In this month of April 2020, Kamel Abdel Rahman visits his future apartment still in constructionconstruction, when he takes the wrong path and falls from the second floor. Its head fits into a huge rod made of metalmetal of 50 centimeters, which crosses his skull from theorbitorbit right to left jaw. “ I could no longer move; I screamed for help », Testifies the 46-year-old man in the Jerusalem Post. Curiously, Kamel Abdel Rahman remains conscious and claims to have felt no pain. “ I remember the horrified expression and screams of my family coming to my aid; I then understood that it must be serious. »
“The entire base of the skull was fractured and spinal fluid was leaking profusely from his nose.”
As his condition rapidly deteriorated, the man was transported to Hadassah Medical Center, in the neurosurgery department. After ensuring that he is still breathing, doctors perform a battery of medical imaging tests to visualize the position of the nail in the skull from every angle. “ Luckily, the nail was embedded right between the two main carotid arteries that supply oxygen to the brain. », Explains Samuel Moscovici, the neurosurgeon who took care of him, in an email to Futura. But the damage is considerable: “ The entire base of the skull was fractured and spinal fluid was leaking profusely from his nose. “.
A region of the skull that is difficult to access
The team then delicately extracts the nail and pieces of damaged flesh. “ A very delicate operation because it was not necessary to touch the two carotid arteries, in a region that is difficult to access. », says Samuel Moscovici. Once the metal rod is removed, his vascular neurosurgery colleagues carry out a angiographyangiography cerebral to evaluate the affected intracranial and extracranial arteries. The examination, which consists of introducing a contrasting product via A cathetercatheter at the level ofelderelder, reveals several damaged arteries, which doctors work to repair one by one. The patient is then more or less stabilized, but not saved, because the tissues of the head are still completely shredded. “ We closed the area and waited a few days for the head swelling to subside, so we could reanalyze the situation and repair the serious damage caused by the injury », relates Samuel Moscovici in the Jerusalem Post.
Ten hours of operation to fill the holes
The second operation, which will last more than 10 hours, is performed via an endoscopic probe so as not to inflict additional trauma on the patient. Surgeons remove fat and muscle from theabdomenabdomen and the leg to repair the base of the skull and plug the leak cerebrospinal fluidcerebrospinal fluid. “ We had to work in critical cranial regions, with structures completely deformed in relation to theanatomyanatomy classicexplains Samuel Moscovici. After the operation, we were quite optimistic but we didn’t know in what state the patient would wake up. »
Against all expectations, Kamel Abdel Rahman wakes up perfectly and everything seems to be working correctly. “ The fact that the rod did not cross a major artery and that the brain injury did not affect a speech area undoubtedly allowed this good recovery. », explains Samuel Moscovici. Three weeks after his accidentaccidentthe miraculous was able to return home.
“ I have operated on numerous head traumahead trauma And tumorstumors complex brain problems, but this is the first time I have been confronted with such a case, really impressive », concludes Samuel Moscovici, still overjoyed at having achieved such a miracle.
