BENGALURU: A two-year-old from Pakistan has successfully undergone a bone marrow transplant at Narayana Health City. The hospital has also completed 2,000 bone marrow transplants.
Amyra, daughter of Pakistan cricket commentator Sikandar Bhakt, underwent a bone marrow transplant for mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), a rare disorder.
“The healthcare facilities in India are really advanced these days, and the quality and cost of treatment in our country are affordable. The father donated bone marrow to his child for the rare genetic disorder MPS 1, and the child is doing well. Karnataka has a good number of medical institutions and good quality hospitals where people from other countries too come for treatment. We are happy to train doctors and nurses from Pakistan and other countries,” said Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman of Narayana Health and noted cardiac surgeon.
“The girl has a genetic condition called Mucopolysaccharidosis type I, where an enzyme is missing in the body and, because of the deficiency of the enzyme, there are a lot of changes in the body, like the liver and spleen becoming big and bones changing. Most of the children with this condition become practically handicapped by 19 years of age, and many die in their second decade of life, ” explained Dr Sunil Bhat, senior consultant in paediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation.
“A bone marrow transplant is one of the treatment options for this. The child did not have any siblings, and we looked for an unrelated donor as well. Her father is a Pakistani national who had flown here to complete the procedure. She is now four months post-transplanation and we checked for enzymes and she is starting to normalise and is doing well”, he added.
“My daughter was born in Dubai during Covid-19 in 2020. I had come down to meet my parents after child birth, and before going back, I went to a hospital in Hyderabad to do a proper health check-up on my daughter. The doctors had suggested doing some tests, and after that, we got to know there was some problem with her and found out that she has a rare disorder called MPS I. I got three different opinions. It needs a panel of doctors that includes brain, bone, and more. My child was active and it was an internal thing which only doctors could identify,” said Sadaf Khan, the mother.
“Two treatments were suggested. One was enzyme replacement therapy, where she had to take injections every week and it was very expensive. We took that injection for a couple of months, which acted as a base for bone marrow transplantation. I was told that if the transplantation was done within two years, it would be successful. Some doctors really scared me, but Dr Sunil Bhat was very patient in explaining things and took me through the steps again and again. He gave me that assurance that every parent needs and had answers to all my queries. The doctors and nurses became like family. If patients with the disease are not treated in time, they have less life expectancy. The procedure has been smooth”, she added.