Mangaluru : Kanachur Hospital & Research Centre has many firsts to its credit. A 17 yr old boy from Koppa, who was diagnosed to have a rare cancer of the Left Maxilla known as Rhabdomyosarcoma. COVID hampered the treatment options for the child and his family. After various checks and hospital visits; they heard about the oncology set up and workmanship of Kanachur Hospital. The case was discussed by the Tumor Board Team of Kanachur Hospital led by Dr Ravi Varma, Dr Guruprasad & Dr Najeeb. This tumor didn’t respond to chemo and radiotherapy & had to be operated upon as the child now was not able to drink and was having difficulty in breathing.

This child was operated on 22nd February, 2022 under ABARK scheme without any complication and was discharged on the 18th day. Post surgery the child was fed using a naso-gastric tube and successive follow ups happened. To encourage his food intake a reconstructive surgery on the face was planned using a prosthesis under the planning of Dr Padmaraj Hegde, Dr Chetan & Dr Ravi Varma with the Anaesthetist Team of Dr Vincent Mathias & Dr Sambhram which was funded entirely by the management of Kanachur Hospital & Research Centre.

Dr Ravi – Oncosurgeon, Kanachur Hospital says “Rhabdomyosarcoma is one of the rarest tumors seen in children and is usually treated using

chemo / radiotherapy. But this type of a chronic disease is seen in one in a million cases and is less than 1% in india. Since this tumor was radio and chemo resistant, cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen) has to be used intra operatively to reduce its recurrence and this was the rarest indication.”

The boy is now breathing normally and can chew soft meals and is happy. The boys smile says it all.

Kanachur Hospital and Research Centre, a unit of Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences is a 1000 bed tertiary healthcare facility; which is just over 8 years into existence and is comparable to any mature healthcare institution in the region and beyond. The skills that the medical & surgical fraternity possess with their updated skill set is par excellence; which brings out patient satisfaction and amazing results. Kanachur is the name for affordable and compassionate healthcare in the region and beyond and has helped thousands of patients from the district and beyond – into their activities of daily living through the right therapeutic and diagnostic treatment plans. The FREE health camps conducted have had life changing experiences on many marginalized patients..