Kerala: Complex surgery on 3 yr old with rare congenital disease

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A private hospital here has claimed to have successfully performed a complex surgery on a three-year-old boy diagnosed with a rare congenital disease known as Hirschsprung, and he is on his way to a healthy recovery.

Doctors at the pediatric department of KIMS Health, on examining the child, who suffered from poor bowel movement since birth, referred him to the pediatric surgeon. The specialist said the condition was owing to missing nerve cells in the colon muscles and suggested a keyhole surgery, after a biopsy near the anus confirmed Hirschsprung's disease.

The hospital learnt that the patient’s middle-class family from Tamil Nadu, had not enrolled under any health insurance scheme and that the major illness had already drained them of their resources. Authorities thus informed the parents that hospital itself would bear the treatment expenses, above their capacity.

The surgery was a success, according to Dr Reju Joseph Thomas, Minimal Access Surgeon at KIMS HEALTH.

“However, an unexpected emergency arose the next day, leading us to perform one more operation,” he revealed. The parents of the child are relieved that their child is now free of the suffering, which the child underwent for the past three years, it said.