200 kids with ortho problems await surgeries with hopes

Bangalore: Fifteen-year old Abishek hopes his
bones will no longer break everytime he tries to chase a puppy
down the street and trips.

The boy, studying in class 10, suffers from brittle bones,
a genetic disorder that causes frequent fractures, and is
waiting for a surgery that promises to make his bone strong.

Like him, eight-year-old Gururaj from Belgaum is waiting
to know how it means to land your feet on the ground and walk
straight. Born with club feet, he is waiting to take those
first steps of his life without having to bend his thighs or
knees.

The two are among the 200 children set to undergo complex
surgeries to correct bone deformities during a free week-long
camp to be conducted here from tomorrow by 30 expert surgeons
from India and around the world, spearheaded by city-based
doctor Sharan Patil.

Patil, who shot to global fame after a 27-hour surgery
that transformed the life of two-year-old eight-limbed
Lakshmi, nicknamed Durga for sporting extra limbs, is now
hoping to transform many more lives.

"We were flooded by pleas of hundreds of parents after
Lakshmi`s operation (in 2007)", said Patil who heads Sparsh
Hospital and Sparsh Foundation, its charitable division.

Patil, who knew of colleagues treating the underprivileged
in their own small way, decided to bring them under one roof
to perform complex surgeries free of cost.

He approached his friends in the UK and US to chip in and
they have decided to travel down to India at their own expense
to perform the surgeries on children ranging from as young as
two months to 15-year old. The team of 30 surgeons include 16
from UK and two from US.

"We want those on wheelchair to become household walkers.
Those dependant, to become self-reliant or take care of
themselves, at least personal hygiene," he said.

When the camp was announced, it was flooded with 787
children seeking relief, forcing the organisers to drop the
subsequent camps. "It was a mind boggling number of requests,
but we screened the cases. One third of them were inoperable
and were eliminated. Those who had resources to go in for
these surgeries were also eliminated", said Patil.

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The 200 were selected on the basis of them being
medically challenging, needed expensive infrastructure and
highly skilled and trained expertise of leading doctors.

The normal cost of conducting 200 surgeries would run
into to Rs eight-nine crore, but the same would now cost Rs
one crore with experts waiving their charges, he said.

He said as per the 2002 census, nearly three per cent of
new born were found to have mental or physical disability.

Bureau Report

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