‘I was given a few months to live, but surgery saved me’

Mythreyi Raman, 85, pores through newspapers all day to get the latest news on the Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Dhoni’s career.

Mythreyi Raman, 85, pores through newspapers all day to get the latest news on the Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Dhoni’s career.

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Raman, a retired Reserve Bank of India director underwent three major surgeries in August last year for intestinal cancer. She was given only a few months to live by doctors in the United States, where her son lives.

“They were apprehensive about operating on her. They had said she might have to live with the problem and told her son to call her relatives to see her,” said her niece, Shrimukhi Shridhar who takes care of Raman in Mumbai.

In 2010, when Shridhar was in the US, she was suffering from gastrointestinal problems. She was passing motions from her urinary tract. “I was wearing an adult diaper. I was going to the toilet every fifteen minutes. I also had bleeding in my stools,” said Raman, a Santacruz resident.

Raman returned to India and decided to undergo surgeries to remove the tumour. “She would not have been able to tolerate chemotherapy,” said Raman’s surgeon, Dr Deepak Chhabra who is attached to Nanavati Hospital, Vile Parle.

When she opened her eyes after the surgery, Raman asked Shridhar, “Am I alive?” Shridhar just laughed, and pinched her to show she was.