Bengaluru 5 July 2023– This small 4-year-old boy from West Bengal was born with a malformation in brain & spine (lipomyelomeningocele with chiari malformation). There was visible swelling in the lower spine region at birth, which was painful for the mother to see and the family to accept the child. Mother had not undergone proper antenatal checkups. The child had undergone three surgeries (one after the other) at the age of 2 in a charitable hospital but there was no reprieve for the family as the problem persisted. This child was refused treatment at many centres and the child was in severe agony with headache.
One midnight, HOSMAT Neurosurgeon Dr S R Patil got a call from a known person with a request to manage this case. The patient came in extreme pain at the stroke of midnight. After seeing the scans & reports Dr Patil re-evaluated the child with MRI and saw previous problems recurred and persisted. But he took it as a challenge to set right past mistakes by other doctors. As already three surgeries had been performed on the child & again operating on 4-year-old, was not that easy by any means. Child had a risk of losing power in both legs. (paralysis). The family was counselled in detail and help in financial aspects was sought from HOSMAT management.
After careful consideration & deliberations three operations were to be performed to address the headache & spine issues which were done with many challenges with advanced gadgets and intensive monitoring of the child.
Today at HOSMAT we are glad that the child is normal & doesn’t complain of headache & spine pain also. Child is walking, running and playing.
Moral & learnings:
1) Such issues can be avoided if Prenatal diagnosis is done right
2) postnatal correction of such issues is very challenging but can be done provided family understands complexity
3) managing such a complex case needs good team work and armamentarium support from the Institute.