Bangalore, October 18: Fifteen-year old Abishek hopes his bones will no longer break everytime he tries to chase a puppy down the street and trips.
The boy, studying in class 10, suffers from brittle bones, a genetic disorder that causes frequent fractures, and is waiting for a surgery that promises to make his bone strong.
Like him, eight-year-old Gururaj from Belgaum is waiting to know how it means to land your feet on the ground and walk straight. Born with club feet, he is waiting to take those first steps of his life without having to bend his thighs or knees.
The two are among the 200 children set to undergo complex surgeries to correct bone deformities during a free week-long camp to be conducted here from tomorrow by 30 expert surgeons from India and around the world, spearheaded by city-based doctor Sharan Patil.
Patil, who shot to global fame after a 27-hour surgery that transformed the life of two-year-old eight-limbed Lakshmi, nicknamed Durga for sporting extra limbs, is now hoping to transform many more lives.
“We were flooded by pleas of hundreds of parents after Lakshmi’s operation (in 2007)”, said Patil who heads Sparsh Hospital and Sparsh Foundation, its charitable division.
Patil, who knew of colleagues treating the underprivileged in their own small way, decided to bring them under one roof to perform complex surgeries free of cost.
He approached his friends in the UK and US to chip in and they have decided to travel down to India at their own expense to perform the surgeries on children ranging from as young as two months to 15-year old. The team of 30 surgeons include 16 from UK and two from US.
“We want those on wheelchair to become household walkers. Those dependant, to become self-reliant or take care of themselves, at least personal hygiene,” he said.
When the camp was announced, it was flooded with 787 children seeking relief, forcing the organisers to drop the subsequent camps. “It was a mind boggling number of requests, but we screened the cases. One third of them were inoperable and were eliminated. Those who had resources to go in for these surgeries were also eliminated”, said Patil.
s The 200 were selected on the basis of them being medically challenging, needed expensive infrastructure and highly skilled and trained expertise of leading doctors.
The normal cost of conducting 200 surgeries would run into to Rs eight-nine crore, but the same would now cost Rs one crore with experts waiving their charges, he said.
He said as per the 2002 census, nearly three per cent of new born were found to have mental or physical disability.
–Agencies