Doctors in Eastern India Perform Rare Surgery to Set Right Paralyzed Diaphragm

Doctors in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta have successfully performed a rare surgery on a seven-month-old child.

Animesh Barik was suffering from a rare disease that had shifted his internal organs from their original position.

The rare congenital anomaly had left him malnourished as he could barely take any food. Medical tests revealed that the baby had a paralysed diaphragm because of a numb phrenic nerve. Consequently internal organs shifted position, doctors said, reports The Times of India.

At birth, Animesh weighed 2.8 kg, slightly less than normal. But there were other worries in store for his parents Ananta and Nirmala of Howrah’s Sankrail. Right after birth, the baby started suffering from respiratory distress. He could hardly take any food and would throw up immediately. These seven months, Animesh gained hardly a kilo, whereas his weight should have gone up to around 8 kg.

For the last three months, Ananta, a daily-wage earner, made several rounds of many hospitals but could not get a correct diagnosis, leave aside treatment. "We had no idea about what the problem was. The local doctor could not help us. We went to big hospitals but to no avail," said Ananta.

On December 26, the Bariks took their son to the Clinic of Concern for Comprehensive Childcare. The organisation, run by medical and non-medical professionals, got the child admitted to Westbank Hospital the same day.

That was where the problem was diagnosed. Animesh had been suffering a ‘paralysed diaphragm’.

"This wasn’t the only problem. We also detected a hole in his diaphragm after the abdomen was opened. A portion of the liver had come out through this hole. It was a complicated case," said Biswajit Bhaduri, the paediatric surgeon who operated on the child.

The thorax was also opened and the organs shifted back. The paralysis had made the diaphragm muscles non-functional and so these were tightened. The hole in the diaphragm was repaired with a net-like object to avoid any spill-over of the organs. The final task was to shift the heart back to its normal position.

Animesh is now breathing normally and eating well. Doctors expect him to normally gain weight as the feeding process.

Source-Medindia
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