Operation gives new lease to Pranjali

Operation gives new lease to Pranjali
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, JUNE 19: A team of doctors at the Rashtra Sant Tukdoji Maharaj (RST) Hospital today performed a successful operation on the right ear of 10-year-old Pranjali Ganesh Rohi of Achalpur, who was admitted here following a petition filed by her mother Shobha Rohi in the High Court seeking permission for mercy-killing.

Doctors at the RST had earlier announced that Pranjali did not suffer from cancer, as feared by her mother. Instead, they said, she was suffering from `Chronic Suppuritive Otitis Media with Cholestetoma' which means a dangerous condition of the ear affecting the masteroid bone of the ear. Clinical scrap cytology, X Ray and a biopsy of the right ear performed on Pranjali further ruled out any possibility of cancer.

A team of doctors led by Joint Director of the Hospital and ENT specialist, Dr B K Sharma and assisted by Dr Satsheel Sapre, Dr Anjali Kolhe, Dr Aarti Darda, Dr Pacchel, Dr Naresh Ambedkar, Smeeta Vanmali and Ashok Dhawade performed a `radial masteroidectomy' operation on the right ear of Pranjali on Saturday morning, in which the pus formed in the ear was drained out. According to Dr Sharma, the prolonged formation of pus had damaged the mastoid and other bones of Pranjali's ear and therefore were removed.

The operation ended with doctors leaving a cavity inside Pranjali's right ear after removing the damaged bones. Sharma later informed that the operation was necessary to relieve Pranjali from the trouble as the condition of her ear might have turned worse later. Although the operation has left Pranjali's right ear deaf, she is completely out of danger and would be able to go home after a week.

It may be mentioned here that on May 11, Pranjali's mother, Shobha, an agricultural labourer hailing from Achalpur in the neighbouring Amravati district, had written a letter to the High Court here, seeking permission for mercy-killing of her daughter or alternatively demanding proper treatment facilities as she was not in a position to afford the treatment.

Shobha stated that her economic condition did not allow her to afford treatment by a private doctor nor she was in a position to take her daughter to any hospital at an urban centre to get a surgery performed on the girl.

She stated that following a check-up at the Leprosy Care Centre at Kathora in Achalpur tehsil, the doctors there had suspected her ailment as cancer which had spread over half the portion of her brain, resulting in an excruciating pain at regular intervals.

The girl would wail uncontrollably and often make a deathwish to get rid of the sufferring for the past two years, she stated.

Treating the letter as a criminal writ petition, the High Court bench of Justices S P Kulkarni and P S Bramhe rejected her plea for mercy-killing on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and ordered on June 8 that the girl be treated at government expense at the RST Hospital.

It appointed advocate Daga as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter and directed the Tehsildar and the Police Station Officer of Chandur Bazar, where Pranjali has been residing with her grandfather, to arrange for her transportation here.

The Dean of the Medical College was asked to supervise the treatment and a week-long deadline was set up for updating the court about the action taken.