HER OWN weight 2.5 kg and a Teratomas tumour of 20 grams in the neck. The negative arithmetic had made all in the family lose hope for their 8-day-old child. More tears rolled down when they heard the child needs tracheostomy to breathe.
Contrary to the speculations about the survival, child now breathes well and is recuperating fast, thanks to the doctors at the Paediatric Surgery Department of KGMU, who accepted the rare challenge found in 1 out of 20 lakh children and resulted success. Teratomas are tumours that comprise of the three germ layer.
KGMU itself had eight such cases in past 30 years but never with a child just eight days old.
“The challenge before us was the age of the child and the size of the tumour. It was 4 cm by 3 cm starting from the neck and virtually touching the brain,” said Dr Ashish Wakhlu, who operated the child. “At first we did a needle biopsy to clear doubts and found that the tumour was made of three germinal layers. The challenge was also on the role of anaesthesia because giving general naesthesia to a small child was done never before in the varsity,” Dr Wakhlu said.
After a brief discussion Dr Rajnee Gupta and her team took up the task of administering anaesthesia while Dr Wakhlu was joined by senior resident Dr Sandip Sinha to do the 45-minute operation.
{{/usCountry}}After a brief discussion Dr Rajnee Gupta and her team took up the task of administering anaesthesia while Dr Wakhlu was joined by senior resident Dr Sandip Sinha to do the 45-minute operation.
{{/usCountry}}“The day we put the child on the operating table, it had turned 13-day-old. But the challenge remained the same as the entire tumour was to be removed through a slit on the left side of the neck and with a tender body like this all depended on the team work,” Dr Wakhlu said.
The operation was successful and with the tumour removed, the child is breathing free at home.