Doctors warn against self diagnoses after Pune techie survives

The symptoms aggravated, with the woman later losing control over her bladder. Despite this, the woman continued to seek help from the internet

A 35-year-old female techie from Magarpatta has landed into a possible case of life-long paralysis, a result of self medication with help from the internet.

The victim, tried to self medicate for six months, after noticing a “tingling” feeling in her legs(PICTURE FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY)

The victim, tried to self medicate for six months, after noticing a “tingling” feeling in her legs. The symptoms aggravated, with the woman later losing control over her bladder. Despite this, the woman continued to seek help from the internet.

When contacted, she said, “Post my delivery in early 2018, I thought my pelvic muscles had weakened, hence urinary incontinence and loss of control over my bladder. When the tingling feeling in legs aggravated, I chose physiotherapy which I looked for on the internet (YouTube). Physiotherapy too did not help and my symptoms worsened. Not only was I losing balance while walking, but my lower limbs also became spastic and movement became very difficult. That is when I was taken to the hospital where we found out that I had a tumour in my spinal cord. My self diagnosis led to delay in treatment, as I never thought I could possibly be suffer from such a condition.” 

Dr Pravin Survashe, a senior neuro surgeon at Columbia Asia hospital, who treated the woman said, “The woman’s condition could have proven fatal. The delay in treatment has already led her to lose complete control over her bladder. Further delay in treatment could have led to life long paralysis.” 

Survashe further said, “The patient was brought to us four months ago. Post running several tests we managed to diagnose the tumour in her spinal cord. Fortunately, the tumour is non-cancerous and benign ,but there are certain tumours that are malignant in form. Since it was a tumour, it needed a surgical removal which we did post which she not only started walking, but even joined work recently.” 

He further said, “There are many who delay treatment only because they try to look for treatment on internet but self diagnosis can be life threatening and can even cost a person his life.”