Complex surgery removes 10kg tumour from teenage girl

A team of doctors from Care Hospital, Banjara Hills removed an unusually sized Neuro Fibroma weighing about 10kg from a 19-year-old malnourished recently. The girl, Naseem Fatima, hailing from an economically weak family was diagnosed to have a large Neuro Fibroma emerging out of her left side of the back.

“Naseem, the eldest of the four siblings of Khaja Moinuddin, a car driver by profession and a resident of Sultanshahi was in severe pain, discomfort and unable to walk. The tumour had almost ruptured when she was brought to the hospital,” said Mujtaba Hasan Askari, Managing trustee of Helping Hand Foundation (HHF).

“Having run from pillar to post and discouraged by the high cost of surgery and rehabilitation, upwards of rupees six lakh as indicated by a couple of private hospitals, the father had given up all hope and brought the girl back home. When we came to know about this case, our volunteers rushed the girl to Care Hospital.

Moving her to any State run hospital for treatment seemed a bit risky, as getting a team of doctors to evaluate the case and operate in urgency looked seemingly difficult,” said Askari. Dr Amir Basha, neuro surgeon stated, “It was necessary to involve a mutli disciplinary team, as the tumour had penetrated the kidney with genesis from the spinal canal and cutting across the abdominal cavity.”

Dr Krishnam Raju, Surgical Transplant Urologist removed the tumour from the kidney and Dr Basha from the spinal canal; both steps were done in a sequential basis. Lastly Dr Gyanehswar, Plastic Surgeon had to reconstruct the flap and skin as there was huge skin loss while removing the tumour.

“The tumour was removed after a seven hour surgery and eight units of blood were transfused intra operationally,” said Dr Basha. Helping Hand Foundation mobilised rupees two lakh for the surgery through its donor network and the balance came from the CMCO; the doctors operating on the patient waivered there fees in a rare humanitarian gesture to save a life of teenage girl.

“Presently, Naseem is recuperating in a step down ICU. She is on post op rehabitation, she has lost significant amount of muscle mass from the back and she weighs only 17kg after the surgery. Her recovery will be long but she is certainly out of danger and relieved of the pain she was in all this while,” said Dr Basha.