Barinder Saluja, Chandigarh/Panchkula ,Feb. 23 : Two surgeries at Alchemist hospital give new life to H.P. boy, just 2.5 ft tall and weighing only 20 kg
All of 15 years, little Aditya Kumar stands just 2.5 feet tall and weighs a little over 20 kg, virtually half of normal boys his age. Son of a petty kiryana merchant in a remote village 60 kms from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Aditya since his childhood had a massive intestinal malformation because of which whatever he ate he lost by way of watery stools 7-8 times a day.
Having been traumatized all of these 15 years, despite having been operated upon at the PGI here ten years ago, and having been dismissed as a hopeless case by CMC hospital Ludhiana recently, the little packet was wheeled into Alchemist hospital a couple of weeks ago with bloated face, stomach and feet and skin lesions all over his body.
Luckily for him he was referred to the pediatric surgeon Dr Biswajit Biswas, MS, Mch (pediatric surgery) who after getting thorough investigations conducted diagnosed him as suffering from what is clinically termed as intestinal lymphangectasis, an acute case of intestinal malformation. After two surgeries within ten days Aditya has not only survived the trauma but is looking forward to living a normal life and confident about appearing for his class X exams next month. The bloated parts of his body have already returned to normal and the skin lesions have also vanished. He is eating near normal diet and is also passing normal stool.
Says his father M.L. Mahajan, the deep worry lines on his forehead becoming softer, “we had lost all hope of Aditya surviving the latest life threatening complications. Even Dr Biswas was unsure after medical investigations whether the enormity of the complications could be overcome or not, but I told him to firm up his heart and give it his best shot. We told him we had nothing more to lose, but everything to gain if the operation was successful. And we are thankful to him for giving our child a new life.”
Dr Biswas recollects that the boy was mentally normal but the intestinal malformation had caused severe growth retardation in him. “After the investigations I was not sure whether the boy was curable or not. It was only after I opened his intestine in the first surgery that I resolved that I will give it my best shot. We built him up nutritionally for a week by feeding him intravenously before conducting the second operation. The results were remarkable. Within days he was hale and hearty.”
About the possibility of Aditya now being able to grow up like a normal child, Dr Biswas said “yes he can grow physically in height till the age of 21 years.”
Dr Biswas feels that awareness about the specialized field of pediatric surgery is still lacking in the general public and lives of more such children can be saved if this awareness was spread in the community. “The media can play a very important role in this,” he added.
There are very few pediatric surgeons in this region and Alchemist is the only private hospital in the region with a full time pediatric surgeon. PGI has an advanced pediatric centre and PGI Rohtak also has a department of pediatric surgery.