| |
The Shifa International
Hospital surgeons have successfully removed a rare kidney tumour
weighing around three kilograms from the abdomen of a two-year-old girl
by a surgical procedure that lasted five hours.
An abnormal mass of dead cells serving no purpose, the huge cancerous
tumour was taken out by a team of five surgeons led by noted urologist
and kidney transplant surgeon Professor Dr Saeed Akhtar.
According to Dr Akhtar, the tumour was almost as big as a football and
that he hasn’t removed such a mass from a baby’s body in his medical
career spanning over 30 years. He told this scribe that the girl,
Huraima Fatima, had showed post-surgery improvement and was fast
recovering.
“She is fine and free from all the pain she had for quite some time.
She’s consuming food and liquids without pain,” he said. Taimour Khan,
35, father of Abbottabad’s Huraima, the only child of her parents, said
his daughter had abdominal swelling, which gradually grew bigger to his
and his wife’s worry.
“Initially, we thought that the swelling was caused by dirt and mud she
consumed while playing in the house courtyard and just shrugged it off.
But later as it began growing, we got alarmed and went to a leading
Abbottabad hospital, where doctors disclosed after a test that she has
been carrying a tumour in abdomen. Totally distraught, we rushed to
Shifa (International) Hospital for further tests and treatment,” he
said.
Accompanied by his wife Neelum, 32, the girl’s father said the family
was relieved to see her daughter undergo a successful operation and fast
recover. Huraima is currently kept at the hospital for chemotherapy, the
use of chemical agents to control and try to cure cancer.
According to Dr Akhtar, only five in 100 people with kidney cancer
survived in the past but now, chemotherapy has increased survival rates
to 95 per cent. He said though reasons for development of cancerous
tumour had so far been unknown, chromosomal abnormalities were generally
blamed for it. The neurologist said the sooner the deadly cancer was
diagnosed and treated, the better its sufferer’s chances of recovering.
caption
RECOVERING: Huraima Fatima after the surgery. |
|
