After a drunkard bit off half of Avinash Phulpagare's ear, he was treated like an outcast in his town Nanded. "My friends used to tease me and call me names like 'Kaan Katela'. No one in the village was ready to marry off their daughter to me. Fortunately, my sister, who works as a nurse in Mumbai, took me there for a reconstruction surgery," said Avinash, 22.
Today, Avinash doesn't have to worry about marriage proposals. A team of doctors at an Andheri hospital whipped up an innovative solution: They implanted a soft bone from the rib to reconstruct his ear.
"A year ago, I was sleeping in the fields, when a man came out of nowhere and bit off my ear," Avinash told dna. Howling in pain, Avinash chased the attacker, who fled and is yet to be traced. "After an hour, I started feeling dizzy as I had lost lot of blood. Carrying the bitten off chunk of my ear, I went to the local municipal hospital," recalled Avinash.
The Nanded Municipal Hospital doctors did a botched up operation, and the severed part of Avinash's ear tore off after resuturing.
Finally, his sister persuaded him to come to Mumbai. His surgery was carried out in two sessions at the BSES Municipal General Hospital in Andheri. In December last year, a 5x3 cm-long soft bone was extracted from the anterior part of his seventh and ninth ribs. The soft bone was used to form a graft of the outer ear. Dr Parit Ladani, a cranio-maxillo-facial surgeon who operated upon Avinash, said, "The ear cartilage is softer than the rib bone. But the inner part of the rib is soft and once extracted, it can be regrown into hard bone. The ribs take until forty years to fully develop. Soft bone from the rib was carved out and given the shape of the outer ear. A flap was created by opening the skin at the back of his ear. The grafted rib was sutured on to the remaining part of the ear. The flap was then placed over the graft to cover the reconstructed ear."
In the second stage of surgery conducted in August this year, another small piece of rib cartilage was placed behind the ear to elevate it and suspend it at an appropriate angle.
"My friends don't tease me anymore. My parents are looking for a suitable bride for me. Elsewhere, such a complicated reconstruction would have cost close to Rs 3 lakh. My surgery was funded by the Swiss Cleft and Craniofacial Centre at the hospital, and did not cost me a thing," said an elated Avinash.
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