KOCHI: A team of specialists and experts from Lakeshore Hospital and Ernakulam Medical College (EMC) Hospital recently accomplished what is being hailed by many as a ‘medical miracle’. Through an intricate surgery that had very minimal chances of success, the team successfully cured three-year-old Mohammed Haiden of a ‘rarest-of-rare’ lung cancer. The odds of failure resulting in death were heavily stacked against the toddler, with medical experts in the UAE, where he was diagnosed with the rare disease, having opined that the child would live only for 15 more days.
The surgery to remove the malignant tumour, described by experts as a ‘one in a million’ case, was undertaken for the very first time in Kerala by the team of expert surgeons from both hospitals on September 6.
So critical was the child’s condition that experts who undertook the surgery were fully conscious of the high likelihood of death on the operating table.
Haiden, the eldest son of Udaif and Jubeena residing in the UAE, was diagnosed with cancer in August.
“Our son never had breathing difficulties in the past. On August 25, he was struggling to breathe and we were scared to death. Medical experts in the UAE said that his condition was very serious,” said Jubeena. Haiden was diagnosed with pulmonary blastoma, a rare type of lung-related cancer occurring in children.
The parents, losing hope for treatment in the UAE, contacted Dr V P Gangadharan, oncologist at VPS Lakeshore Hospital, who in turn gave them a ray of hope.
“When I first met Haiden on August 28, he was in a really bad state. The child was actually oxygen-starved and surviving on just around 15 per cent of his lungs. The tumour had occupied 100 per cent of his right lung and more than 70 per cent of his left lung. It was fortunate that the tumour did not spread to any other organ. Immediate surgery was the only option,” Dr Gangadharan told media persons at IMA House on Wednesday.