Chennai: Gayatri and Ranganathan are now a happy couple. Reason? Their eight-month old pre-term baby, Nethran has now got a new life. The baby weighed 1.2 kg and was diagnosed with a hole in the heart, sepsis, recurrent lung collapses, cancerous tumour in his liver and abnormal fusion of his skull bones by the doctors at Apollo Children’s Hospital. After an intense battle for eight months, the baby is now stable.
Addressing a press conference in Chennai yesterday, Apollo hospital’s consultant neonatologist, Dr Latha Kanchi Parthasarathy said, “Nethran was kept in the ventilator as his lungs were still in the development stage and he had a hole in the heart. The lungs were very delicate and kept collapsing repeatedly. He also developed the first sepsis attack which we curtailed with antibiotics. A routine ultrasound revealed an abnormal mass in the liver, which kept enlarging during the course of the treatment.”
On further investigation, a CT scan showed the possibility of a malignant tumour or a benign vascular mass, which turned out to be a hepatablastoma post-biopsy.
“To fight against this, we started chemotherapy, as we aimed to shrink the tumour before the liver surgery. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the congenital hole in the heart was causing additional problems. The blood entering the heart was flowing too much into the lungs through the hole, increasing the pressure to dangerous levels. We had to interrupt the chemotherapy, and the child had to immediately undergo open-heart surgery. Post-surgery, the lungs were still very fragile and were continually collapsing. To worsen the situation, the child developed sepsis again, which put the baby in a life-threatening situation,” added Latha.
However, little Nethran did not surrender but continued to fight. The team of doctors removed the right lobe of his liver soon after which he got the third sepsis which was controlled by antibiotics. Within a few weeks, the baby’s skull started fusing prematurely, causing an abnormal head shape increasing the pressure within his brain and a cranial surgery was performed.
The last cycle of chemotherapy was completed on 4 July and the doctors said he has been showing positive results and Nethran will be under regular check-up for five years to ensure the tumour does not recur. Now he weighs around 4.5kg.