Fish injures Maldivian man’s spinal cord: Here’s how Kerala doctors’ rare surgery saved him

The doctors at Kerala’s Amrita in Kochi Hospital saved a Maldivian fisherman who was critically injured in a rare attack. The 32-year-old man was attacked by a barracuda, a fish belonging to the ‘tiger fish family,’ while fishing at night. The fish is known for its sudden, though rare, attacks with its sharp teeth and can even reach speeds of up to 58 km/hr with quick strikes. The spinal cord area behind the fisherman’s neck was severely injured after he got bitten. At first, he was admitted to a hospital in the Maldives, but he was later airlifted to Amrita Hospital after his condition worsened. The left hand and leg of the man were in a paralysed condition when he was moved to Kochi. The team of expert doctors led by Dr Sajesh Menon, head of the neurosurgery department, and Dr.Dalwin Thomas removed more than ten pieces of the barracuda’s teeth from the spinal cord.

A rare surgery
The youngster has been shifted to the ward as his condition improved. Doctors say that it is quite rare to perform a complex surgery on the backbone and the spinal cord at the same time. Cases of barracuda attacks have been reported in the Maldives earlier, too. Some of them have reportedly succumbed to the injuries due to lack of advanced treatment. Reports on people getting injured due to sharks, candiru fish, stonefish, stingrays, and swordfish attacks make headlines once in a while across the globe. Barracuda fishes are also found off Kerala’s coast, especially in deep-sea fishing zones and near rocky formations near Vizhinjam, Beypore, Kollam and Kochi.