Amputation is not the sole remedy when bone cancer is the disease in question, limb saving surgeries are in existence. Numerous patients have benefited from the advances made in the technologies available in detecting and treating of bone cancers. Further, the expertise of the treating orthopedic oncologist also matters and very countable numbers of such specialist orthopedic oncologists are available in the entire of the world who have the expertise and confidence in suggesting limb salvaging surgeries to treat bone cancer. This case is of a young patient who undertook a medical travel to India for his bone cancer treatment. His medical travel to India not only ensured that he was cured of bone cancer but he was cured of bone cancer without having to amputate his affected arm.
This case is of a young patient who was eighteen years of age. The patient had a bike accident. He was injured in the bike accident and he also fractured his right arm. While being treated at a hospital in his native country for the fracture the treating doctors in the hospital noticed an abnormality in the x-rays of his right fractured arm. They had certain suspicions and accordingly they asked him to visit an oncologist.
The patient had the cast on his fractured hand for nearly three months. When the cast was removed the doctors noticed that the fracture had a malunion. To add to the woes of the patient the doctors also noticed that the cancer had worsened. They immediately referred him to a cancer hospital.
The only remedy to save the life of the patient that the doctors in the cancer hospital in his country could arrive at was amputation of the bone cancer affected right arm. The patient and his family were torn in grief. They visited numerous other cancer hospitals in their country in search of an alternative as opposed to the arm amputation. Nothing positive emerged from their quest.
It is during such a time that the patient's family came to know about a cancer camp being conducted in their city. They immediately visited the camp. Our hospital has conducted such cancer camps in numerous countries and multitudes of patients from those respective countries have benefited from the camps. Patients visiting these camps are in a position to meet the oncologists directly, understand the kinds of treatments that are currently available, and also gain an understanding of the survival rate and success rates of the treatments the oncologists suggest.
The patient too presented his case to an orthopedic oncologist at the cancer camp. The orthopedic oncologist studied his case and suggested that his bone cancer could be cured and that too without amputating his bone cancer stricken arm. The patient and his family's joy knew no bounds. The orthopedic oncologist also made an important observation that the case was still a high-risk one and the mortality rate was quite high.
Though the solution to the bone cancer was in sight, affording the treatment and traveling to India for the treatment was the next of the patient and his family's concern. The patient and his family were in dire poverty. However the patient's family did not want their financial status in becoming a hindrance to the patient's treatment. They firmly took a resolution that they would indeed travel to India and ensure that the patient received his treatment.
The patient's family put forth a brave effort and worked real hard in organizing the necessary funds for his treatment. They requested for donations, and for this they contacted numerous individuals and charitable organizations. They also requested their government for some funds. They also went to the extent of selling off their only small parcel of land to raise the necessary funds.
Once they had raised the necessary funds the family decided to send the patient to India for his treatment. At his point of time they realized that none of them knew English and there was no way of them communicating with anyone in India. A relative of theirs demanded a fee of USD 2000 for helping them with English translation. Not wanting to waste their hard earned funds on trivial matters they pursued for an alternative. Finally an English teacher decided to volunteer the patient for free.
While the fund raising activities were in progress, the patient was already on chemotherapy.
On 24th September, 2012 we received the MRI scan reports of the patient on a CD. The treating orthopedic oncologist went through the patient's MRI scan reports and concluded that the treatment he would be performing on the patient would be a wide excision, or en bloc resection with vascularized fibula transfer.
On 11th of October the hospital sent a visa invitation letter to the patient to enable him to travel to India for his bone cancer treatment.
The patient arrived in India on the 29th of October, 2012. The hospital made the necessary arrangements to pick the patient, his attender, and the translator from the airport. The hospital also made the necessary arrangements for their stay at the hospital's guesthouse.
Upon the patient's arrival at the hospital the hospital made the necessary arrangements for consultation with the treating orthopedic oncologist and for the patient's evaluation on an outpatient or OPD basis.
The patient was admitted to the hospital on the 30th of October, 2012. The patient was posted for surgery on the 31st of October, 2012.
The surgery that was performed on the patient was wide excision, or en bloc resection and vascularized fibula transfer. The affected bone was removed from the body, irradiated externally, and reinforced with a vascularized fibula from the leg through microvascular surgery. The entire duration of the surgery was eight hours.
The patient was discharged from the hospital on the 5th of November, 2012. The patient was in a position to fly back to his country on the 16th of November, 2012.
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