103-yr-old back in form after cancer surgery

Sardar Singh had surgery for prostate cancer last month and is back on his feet to celebrate his 103rd birthday in January.

Sardar Singh had surgery for prostate cancer last month and is back on his feet to celebrate his 103rd birthday in January.

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"We thought he will not be able to tolerate a surgery at this advanced age, but his positive attitude helped us go ahead," said Dr Rajinder Yadav, senior consultant, urology and laparoscopic surgery at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, who led the surgical team.

"Though Singh had no underlying medical conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes, his age worked against him. But not only did the surgery go well, he also recovered very quickly," said Yadav.

Singh was diagnosed with malignant growth in the prostate gland three years ago when he was 100 years old.

At this age, doctors usually do not prescribe any medicine or cancer therapies to the person to avoid letting his condition deteriorate.

"This is a slow-growing cancer and we avoid making a 100-year-old person undergo strong cancer medications and radiation. So we just did surgery to remove the cancerous cells," said Yadav.

The cancer, however, recurred and Singh again consulted Yadav on November 1 with the complaint of obstructed urine. The tests confirmed recurrence of malignancy, but this time doctors advised to put him on a catheter rather than performing a surgery.

"He flatly refused. I discussed with my team and with the consent of the family, I decided to go ahead with the surgery," said Yadav.

"What's the point of living like a sick man with a tube dangling from your side. I had an option and I decided to opt for it," said Singh.

On November 5, in a 30-minute minimal access surgery, Yadav and his team did a bilateral orchiectomy to remove the cancerous cells along with his testicles to lower the chances of recurrence.