India’s moment of glory:   by performing successful orthopaedic surgery on 119-year-old man

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspeciality Hospital achieved a new milestone by successfully conducting orthopaedic surgery on a 119 year-old man. The rare feat was conducted by Dr VikasPadha, Senior Consultant Orthopaedics &Joint Replacement along with an ORTHOPAEDIC surgery team at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) Narayana Superspeciality Hospital Katra on February 22, 2020.

Narayana Hospital’s latest feat surpasses the earlier held record of pace maker implant surgery conducted last year on 118-year-old woman.

The patient Mr. Gopal Singh, who hails from Darap near Satwari area of Jammu, was born on June 5, 1900, according to his voter identity card and was exactly 119 years 262 days old at the time of Surgery. Mr Gopal Singh had a fall at his home and sustained fracture in the legbone (tibia).

According to the operating surgeon Dr. Vikas Padha, “The configuration of fracture required internal fixation for the union of fracture. After thorough discussion with family explaining all risks involved in the surgery, it was decided to go for operative treatment. The surgery was done using latest minimal invasive techniques of fracture fixation. The successful surgery has ensured that the patient will spend rest of his life comfortably without any pain following union of fracture. Patient recovered very well in the post-operative period and was sent home within a week after surgery.

The Anaesthesia team was led by HOD Dr. Trupti Modi whereas the critical care team led by HOD Dr Vanilla Chopra and Dr Rohit Gupta Consultant Critical Care took care of patient both pre operatively as well as post operatively in ICU.

Dr. Trupti Modi, said, “Administration of regional Anaesthesia is very challenging task in such aged patients with so many risk factors and its matter of great satisfaction that I could do it successfully.”

Dr. (Col.) Rakesh Chander Sahni, the Facility Director of SMVD Narayana Hospital Katra, said, “The successful orthopaedic surgery on 119 years old Gopal Singh is a matter of pride for not only Jammu and Kashmir but also entire India and it is another feather in the cap of our institution equipped with excellent world class infrastructure and skilled manpower.”

“Earlier, the oldest patient to have undergone any kind of surgery in the world was 118 years old woman from Punjab and the Guinness Book of World Records states that the oldest person to have undergone the orthopaedic surgery in the world is 112 years old patient from UK, so we have beaten both the records!” further added by Dr. Sahni.

It is pertinent to mention here that the same Orthopaedic Surgery team lead by Dr. Vikas Padha had done high risk hip surgery in a 104 years female in 2018 and patient is still doing fine at the age of 106 years.