Successful surgery on Indian baby with rare disorder

Doctors have successfully carried out life-saving surgery on an Indian baby suffering from a rare disorder that caused her head to swell to nearly double its size, her neurosurgeon said.

“The surgery went perfectly, much better than expected,” Sandeep Vaishya said after the procedure on 15-month-old Roona Begum inside the operating theatre at a hospital in New Delhi.

“It’s definitely a success but it’s too early to say what the quality of her future life will be like,” Vaishya added.

Roona, who was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that results in a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid on the brain, was found in an Indian village last month living with her parents who are too poor to pay for treatment.

Publication of pictures of the child in the remote northeastern state of Tripura prompted the hospital, run by the private Fortis Healthcare group on the outskirts of Delhi, to offer to treat Roona for free.

When Roona was born, local doctors told her parents to take her to a private hospital in a big city, but the costs were too high for her 18-year-old father, Abdul Rahman, an illiterate labourer who earns 150 rupees (€2.13) a day.

Roona’s condition had caused her head to swell to a circumference of 94 centimetres, putting pressure on her brain and making it impossible for her to sit upright or crawl.

Vaishya estimated the weight of the fluid in her head amounted to half her total weight.

The surgery involved the insertion of a shunt to drain the fluid out of her head and towards her abdomen where it could be absorbed easily into the blood stream.

Vaishya, who heads the hospital’s neurosurgery unit, said Roona would still need “extensive physiotherapy” to allow her to lead a fully functional life.

“Her neck muscles are very under-developed, so she will need more nutrition and extensive physiotherapy to make her stronger. Her body will have to grow strong so she can learn to sit up and move about and live a normal li fe.”

The pictures of Roona prompted an outpouring of support around the world.

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