Mumbai: 9-yr-old, injured due to glass-coated manja, loses 500 ml blood

A nineyearold boyrsquos ankle was severely cut by a clutch of glasscoated kite manja on Sunday evening when he was playing with his friends in Vasai West According to the child the ground was littered with manja used for flying kites The injury led to an immediate reconstruction surgery that lasted for nearly five hours at a multispeciality hospital The child is out of danger nowBesides the nineyearold boy a few others also got injured by kite manja but most cases were not reported to the police Sellers continued to sell the lethal manja on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Monday When many birds were also critically injuredThe child told midday ldquoI was in an open ground with my elder brother and friends They were flying kites and I was catching stray kites for them There was a bunch of manja kept on the ground It got entangled in a motorcycle that passed by and cut my anklerdquoThe childrsquos 12yearold brother saw him getting hurt and rushed to his aid An individual who was celebrating took the children to their home home as all clinics suggested going to a big hospitalldquoSince it was a Sunday I was at home in the evening My children came home with my younger son crying in pain I rushed him to a multispeciality hospital in Vasai West The doctor told us that immediate plastic surgery was requiredrdquo said Nisar Shaikh the boyrsquos father Shaikh is a garment designer in Lower Parelin MumbaiChild was criticalDr Pravin Thorat the owner of Appasheth Thorat Multispeciality Hospital and Critical Centre who treated the child said that he was drowsy when he was brought in ldquoHis blood pressure was plummetingrdquo Dr Thorat saidldquoThe dimensions of his wound were 38 cm X 15 cm He was bleeding profusely but a piece of cloth tied tightly around the wound prevented further blood loss He was critical as he had lost around 500 ml bloodrdquo Dr Thorat told middayldquoThe childrsquos injury was a radial plantar rupture near his ankle The tibial artery with tendon was ruptured and the tendonAchilles had a cut by a sharp object During surgery we removed pieces of manja wire from the wound We had to immediately conduct a plastic surgery that lasted for more than 45 hoursrdquohe addedldquoIt was difficult to conduct surgery as we could not administer heavy anaesthesia to the child We managed to successfully conduct the surgery and the childmdashwho was in hypotension shock due to severe blood lossmdashis now out of dangerrdquo Dr Thorat saidMany people who celebrate Makar Sankranti by flying kites use glasscoated manja to bring rivalsrsquo kites down The stray manja grievously injures humans and birds In some cases people have bled to death after getting cut on their throatsThough Mumbai police claimed to have banned the storage and sale of Chinese manja people have been procuring the glasscoated manja from neighbouring districts or states to fly kites The kite strings are prepared with a special emulsion containing bits of broken glassRecently a Mumbai police constable bled to death on the Vakola flyover after his neck was slit by one such manjaPigeons suffer tooOn the other hand in the past two days 18 pigeons were injured in VasaiVirar Bird lovers have been organising free medical camps after rescuing injured pigeons who get entangled in stray manja Sources said that a successful treatment was administered to three pigeons while three others succumbed to their injuries Treatment continues for the remaining pigeonsPolice in the Surat district of neighbouring Gujarat distributed free neck bands to safeguard motorcyclists tied electric poles with a metal wire to prevent stray wires from falling on twowheelers and banned the movement of motorcycles on all elevated roads on January 14 and 15 to prevent injuriesThe Mumbai police registered 92 cases between December 25 2023 and January 14 2024 arrested 57 people and seized nylon manja worth Rs 143 lakh18Pigeons injured in VasaiVirar over two days03Pigeons who died of their injuries