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Boy fights Crohn’s disease like a ‘warrior’, dreams to crack IIT
The Class 12 student is living with the incurable Crohn’s disease, which is an autoimmune intestinal disease in which the body’s immune system goes rogue and starts attacking its own intestines causing ulcers, intestinal obstruction and several surgical complications.
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In the last four years of his life, 17-year-old Digvijay Roy has been in and out of hospitals. While appearing for the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) Roy was on oral rehydration salts (ORS) through an intravenous channel.
The Class 12 student is living with the incurable Crohn’s disease, which is an autoimmune intestinal disease in which the body’s immune system goes rogue and starts attacking its own intestines causing ulcers, intestinal obstruction and several surgical complications. The severe complications have not been able to deter the meritorious student — a Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search Senior Scholarship (JBNSTS) scholar — who now plans to crack the IIT-JEE.
Digvijay came to Kota a few months ago and took admission in Nucleus coaching institute. The Chitra Visharad in painting and fine arts, however, had to return home to Kolkata as he kept falling ill. Now, he has enrolled himself for Nucleus’ distance learning programme to crack the entrance.
In Digvijay’s case, the list of do’s and don’ts is long. “He has to wear a mask in public places and avoid crowded places to avert infections. He eats food in sterilised utensils to avoid contamination,” said his mother Dr Girija R. Varier, who is a radiologist like her husband, Dr Dhrubo Roy, in Kolkata.
Digvijay’s diet is severely restricted and includes only rice-based homemade food. “His disease is treated with immunosuppressant, which causes bone marrow suppression, liver damage and lowers the general immunity,” she Dr Varier.
He will have a restricted lifestyle, but Digvijay “has taken up the challenge and is fighting with determination” said his mother.
Talking about Crohn’s disease, Dr Dinesh Jindal, a laparoscopic surgeon in Kota, said that life for a student suffering from this disease will be more challenging as he will become weak, lethargic and anaemic due to less absorption of vitamins and nutrients by the intestines and have disturbed bowel habits. “With Crohn’s disease, a patient can lead life but with several health complications like diarrhoea, perforations of the gut, pus/abscess formation and fistula formation, bleeding, chronic illness and weakness,” he added.
Dr Jindal added that Crohn’s disease is usually found in European countries and is not common in India.
Digvijay, who was detected with the disease when he was 13, is a school topper for 10 years. He cracked the regional mathematics Olympiad in class 10 and is also Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) scholar with a national rank of 113 in class 11.
“I want to crack JEE Advanced this year and later take admission in a world-class university to research on particle physics,” said the unstoppable Digvijay, who is trained in eastern classical violin and keyboard.
“Never allow your weaknesses to win over you, try to supersede them by putting a brave front, fight on like a warrior… Accept your limitations, everything in the world is not for you, but what is for you is for you alone and snatch it before the opportunity is lost,” said Digvijay, who idolises Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Stephen Hawking and former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam.
Director of Nucleus coaching institute, Vishal Joshi said that he will be travelling to Kolkata to offer coaching and guidance to Digvijay as the student is determined to become a scientist by defeating his disease.
