5-month-old child overcomes rare immune disease which afflicts one in a million

BENGALURU: A five-month-old child, born with a rare disease that afflicts one in ten lakh people, has beaten the  odd, thanks to  the efforts of doctors in a city hospital. Doctors and experts had given up hope, but the child’s survival is nothing short of a medical miracle. The parents’ prayers have been answered and the efforts of neonatologists have paid off, giving a new life to the baby.

Krishnaveni was born with a very rare disease which causes deficiency in the immune system. She was suffering from an immunodeficiency disease called Leukocyte adhesion deficiency (LAD) involving both B and T cells and is characterised by the inability of leukocytes to migrate to the site of infection to kill offending microbes.

The parents were panicked after they came to know about the rare disease, especially since they has already lost a baby. Doctors had told the couple that Krishnaveni may live for only two more years. Then, the parent came from north Karnataka to the multispeciality Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru, where the child got a new life due to the efforts of a team of neonatologists. Although the child is very small and underweight, the doctor took huge risk to save her.

Balamma, the child’s mother, said, “My first child had a similar health issue and we lost him. We were worried about this child health issue. When we visited Aster CMI Hospital, they treated her well. Now she is slowly recovering from the disease and doing better”.

Bandesh, the father, said, “When we found out that child had some health issues, we went to a hospital in Raichur. We had no hopes for our child. Then, we came here and the hospital bore all the expenses. We lost our first child during the pandemic year. We had no idea about LAD syndrome. Now doctors have saved our child with advanced treatment. I am grateful to all the doctors. This is the new life for both the mother and child”.

Dr Stalin Ram Prakash, a paediatric bone marrow transplant specialist, said this is a very rare disease. “The mother gave a new life to this child after we transplanted her bone marrow. All need immunopower to fight against infection. There are 3 blood cells: white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. White blood cells build immunopower in our body. The neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that acts as the immune system’s first line of defence”.

“The child’s blood cells were not able to go out of the vessels. At this stage, a child cannot fight against any disease and  she got infected repeatedly. There was a fundamental problem in the cell, including genetic factor. The only way for us was to change the blood cells, it can’t get cured by medicines. The biggest challenge in this case was the age of child, and both needed the utmost care as the child is five months old. We took high risks and we have done the bone marrow transplantation successfully. Now, she is doing  better”, he added.