Mumbai, August 26: Knowing one has cancer can be shattering. But for 103-year-old Sagar Bai Bakshi, it was something to be gotten rid off quickly and carrying on with life.
Bakshi, a resident of Thakurdwar, Girgaum, is probably the oldest woman in the country to have undergone mastectomy — the surgical removal of a breast. The operation was on her right breast on July 25. Within three days, she was out of hospital. This was her second mastectomy, the first being when she was 98.
“Usually, after 70 or 80, one does not consider surgery as a treatment, believing the body may not take it or even thinking the procedure as immaterial since one has lived enough,” said Bakshi’s doctor Sanjay Sharma, consulting surgeon and oncologist, Bombay Hospital. “But physiologically, she (Bakshi) is 70. She has no diabetes and just suffers from high blood pressure and hypertension, which are absolutely manageable.”
He said Bakshi’s confidence was vital for the surgery. “We gave her anaesthesia because she was sure of making it.”
What is the secret to Bakshi’s long life? An ardent cricket fan, she says she fasts and is a vegetarian. “I do not eat anything after sunset. I believe the key to a long life is staying happy and spreading love.”
“She leads a disciplined life,” said her grandniece Trupti Jain. “And she has guts.”
–Agencies–