By Health In Five Writer
Some medical practitioners can be miracle workers and for a Ahmednagar family this was proven true. A six-year-old boy managed to emerge unscathed from a brain surgery as well as bone marrow transplant at the Wockhardt Hospital on Mira Road in Mumbai.
A team headed by Dr. Ankit Gupta, lead paediatric intensivist, and Dr. Ashwin Borkar, consultant neurosurgeon, gave a fresh lease of life to the six-year-old boy from Ahmednagar who was suffering from sideroblastic anaemia.
The boy underwent a decompressive craniectomy and is now recovering well.
The parents of Shahid, a resident of Ahmednagar (currently staying at Borivali), noticed that he had vomited and was unresponsive in the middle of the night. Sideroblastic anaemias are a group of bone marrow disorders characterized by increased accumulation of iron in the red blood forming precursor cells.
He came to the ER at 4 am and the doctors managed to save his life.
“In the ER he was unresponsive, actively convulsing and showed life-threatening signs of brain herniation. CT scan of the brain suggested he had a severe form of brain hemorrhage which if not treated urgently would ultimately lead to death in a couple of hours,” Dr. Ankit Gupta said in a statement.
“An extra Dural Hematoma is a common occurrence following traumatic head injuries and accidents but spontaneous EDH which happened in Shahid’s case is very rare. It could be due to platelet dysfunction altered blood coagulation parameters and ineffective bone marrow,” consultant neurosurgeon Dr. Ashwin Borkar said.
“Hematoma causes progressive compressive effects on the brain causing unconsciousness, coma and may be fatal if not evacuated timely. As the child was brought in a comatose condition he was immediately put on a ventilator and taken up for an emergency surgery craniotomy and Hematoma evacuation after a CT scan of the brain showed a massive Hematoma.
“This surgery involves creating a window in a skull bone overlying the Hematoma and the use of suction to remove the clot and is a life-saving surgery wood and timely. Control of bleeding during such surgery is challenging due to altered blood parameters hypertension and massive clot size,” Dr Borkar added.
Lead paediatric intensivist Dr. Ankit Gupta went on to add, “He had a stormy post operation course, where he developed HLH (Haemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis) which is a potentially fatal condition wherein the immune system gets excessively activated and destroys the normal cells of the body. The boy has resumed his daily activities and is fine now.”
