Mumbai: When Priya Shinde delivered prematurely on April 1 at MGM Hospital in Kamothe, the baby girl was immediately transferred for specialised care. After all, she weighed little over 1kg and was at least seven weeks premature.
The main health problem, however, began thereafter; the child was diagnosed with two rare anomalies in the digestive system in the next 48 hours and taken up for a mega surgery immediately.
The Shindes spent Rs 70,000, barely a tenth of the bill at a private setup. “My daughter is gaining weight. Doctors said this is a sign that the operation has gone well,’’ said the child’s father.
D Vipul Bothara, the pediatric surgeon who operated on Baby Shinde, said the child has gained almost a kilo since the operation. “We are happy with the progress of the baby who had two rare abnormalities together,’’ he said.
The day after her birth, the doctors in the ICU discovered that the child was unable to digest her feed of 1ml. “We waited a day, and tried again but she started vomiting and her stomach was distended,’’ said Dr Bothara.
An ultrasound and X-ray scan revealed the culprit: a part of the duodenum — the first part of the small intestine just beyond the stomach — was not formed. This is called duodenal atresia.
As this is an emergency, doctors prepped the baby for surgery on April 6. When the doctors opened the abdomen, they realised that she also had a malrotation of the gut or her intestines were rotated in the wrong way inside the abdomen. Malrotation of the gut is normally seen in 1 in 6,000 newborn children while duodenal atresia is seen in 1 in more than 10,000 newborns.
“The chances of a child having both duodenal atresia and malrotation of the gut is extremely rare,” said Dr Bothara. The operation was thus a drawn-out affair of over two-and-a-half hours.
However, the child started recovering well thereafter. A senior doctor from a public hospital said that one of the biggest issues with pediatric surgeries is the cost factor. “The parents are just starting out in life and don’t have any savings. An affordable surgery is hence important,’’ he said.
