On January 8, the Charni Road resident slipped in her bathroom and suffered a fracture. She was taken to Bombay Hospital the next day by her niece, Sushila Jain, 73, who lives with her.
Counting with her fingers, Safarbai Baxi indicated 100-1-2-3 and declared that she is 103 years old. The sprightly old woman then said to media persons hovering over her hospital bed, “Ask me”.
On January 8, the Charni Road resident slipped in her bathroom and suffered a fracture. She was taken to Bombay Hospital the next day by her niece, Sushila Jain, 73, who lives with her. She was operated upon eight days later and is now recovering in the hospital.
Baxi had broken her thigh bone into four parts and was operated upon by Dr HR Jhunjhunwala. “Even when she was in the hospital, she kept asking us when we would operate upon her,” said Dr Pravin Amin, physician and intensivist.
The former teacher had a long list of problems that had to be sorted before she was taken to the operation theatre. She had osteoporosis, anaemia, asthma, hypertension, weak lungs apart from a history of breast cancer for which she was operated upon earlier.
The doctors had to treat her asthma and then invited anaesthetists to use a safe mode of anaesthesia. “We had to use spinal anaesthesia as opposed to general anaesthesia. In this technique, the patient is conscious, but the lower half of the body is numb,” said Dr Amin. Since she was anaemic, the doctors had to transfuse blood while operating.
Dr Jhunjhunwala then reconstructed the bones using screws and locking plate in 45 minutes. She now eats well and her blood pressure is normal, the doctors said. They said that she will be able to walk freely in the next two months.
“We had to operate upon her so that she can at least move and sit somewhere. This is to prevent bed sore and deep vein thrombosis (blood clot in legs),” said Dr Jhunjhunwala.
Dr Jhunjhunwala said that he had operated on an 108-year-old patient for a hip bone injury in the past.
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