Uttar Pradesh: Varun Trauma Centre doctors on Monday conducted a two-hour surgery on a three-day-old baby born with a 40 cm giant occipital enephalocoele.
Characterized by sac like protrusions of the brain through openings in the skull, the syndrome gives an appearance of two heads protruding almost as big as the baby itself.
Born in Gabhana to a 22-year-old Sonam Kumar, the family of the baby was shocked and saddened with the abnormality. The surgery that costs nearly a lakh rupees, was performed by the doctors without charging any fees, as the family was from an economically weak background, according to sources.
The surgery, although a challenging one, did not require advanced equipment. “We were working on the brain and had to be careful of not touching veins that would have led to instant death. The occipital lobe of the brain had to be carefully avoided, especially since the child was just three days old at the time of the surgery. The surgery, however, required basic surgical equipment, nothing state of the art or advanced, we just had to be extremely careful,” said Dr Nagesh Varshney.
The team comprising of six surgeons had to make sure that the operation was completed within two hours and that the child was kept completely conscious during the duration of the surgery, because of his age.
The team consisted of doctors Nagesh Varshney, Rishabh Gautam, Sanjay Bharagava, Partosh Mohan (a plastic surgen) and Pramod and Manoj Kumar, the OT incharge.
“Giant Occipital encephalocoele, results from the lack of nutrition in the expecting mother. Usually poor people can’t afford a nutritious diet during pregnancy and therefore are affected by problems like these. Expecting mothers should eat green vegetables and also consume folic acid and iron pills,” Varshney said.
“This problem can be averted in the womb if the disorder is detected at the right time during the ultrasound,” said Varshney.
The doctor had removed an encephalocoele measuring 80cm in size from the head of a child last year. additional head from the child last year, this time it was 40 cms, a surgery like this would cost one over a lakh in a hospital in Delhi or Mumbai but here the doctors didn’t charge any money.
Kusum Kumar, who is a family member said, “We thought god punished us by giving us a son like this – but now we will take him back. He is normal like anyone else. This is the first time that a son’s birth was met with grief.”
