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Journalism of Courage
A 22-month-old boy from Oman — born with a rare birth defect — was successfully treated at Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Hyderabad earlier this week.
A press release states that the boy, Wafi, was flown in from Oman in a “very critical condition”. Born without a food pipe — a condition called Esophageal Atresia and Tracheo-Esophageal Fistula (EA/TEF), observed in 1 in 5,000 births — he was treated by Dr Mainak Deb and Dr Harish Jayaram, who helped him during a two-month-long health battle involving a complicated surgery.
Children born with EA/TEF generally require surgery to correct the malformation, so as to allow feeding and to prevent lung damage.
In Wafi’s case, however, in spite of surgery, his condition did not improve. Per the release, the child underwent “multiple endoscopic procedures” and two operations in his home country, but the problem persisted and he became “nutritionally debilitated”.
This is when the Ministry of Health, Sultanate of Oman, wrote to Rainbow Hospital. Wafi’s parents got him admitted in Hyderabad on February 2, 2022.
He was examined by a team of pediatric surgeons: Dr Deb, Dr Jayaram, pediatric intensivists led by Dr Farhan, gastroenterologist, Dr Prashant Bachina and pediatric pulmonologist Dr Naveen Saradhi.
According to Dr Jayaram, pediatric surgeon, the kid was “severely weak and underweight” and it was “very risky” to perform another operation right away. It was, therefore, decided to “nutritionally rehabilitate him through a tube in the stomach, treat his lung infection and then prepare him for a very complex and critical operation”.
Wafi gained desirable weight and his health condition improved in a month; he was finally operated on March 1 — the surgery went on for nearly six hours.
The child required “advanced intensive care” with doctors and nurses by his side round-the-clock. He was on ventilation for 23 days in the pediatric ICU where he fought severe infections and also underwent an endoscopic procedure to clear the pus in his chest.
When Wafi finally came out of the PICU, he was in good health. He was off all tubes and oxygen, and had begun to eat normally. He returned to his country a few days ago.
“Normally, such operations last around two hours. But, due to multiple procedures done in his home country — initially in the same area — it was a challenging case for us, and hence it took a longer time than usual,” Dr Jayaram was quoted as saying.
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