India: Mother Donates Part of a Bone to Help Her Osteomyelitis-Infected Daughter Walk Again

Osteomyelitis, a rare condition, is a bone infection that generally affects the legs, arms, or spine. The treatment usually involves the surgical removal of the "dead" bone.

In a heartwarming incident, a mother donated a portion of a bone to her 12-year-old daughter to help her walk again. After an injury to her thigh at school, the girl, Kashish, became immobile due to a blood-borne infection in the bone. The family hails from India's Bihar and after the condition worsened they came to Delhi so she could be treated.

Kashish along with her mother and Dr. Aashish Chaudhry who performed the surgery. @SputnikInt @Aakash_Hospital pic.twitter.com/Hhm1LTChzy

— Sushmita Panda (@SushmitaPanda) October 18, 2021

A month after the injury, the doctors at a private hospital in Delhi's Dwarka diagnosed her with chronic osteomyelitis.

In a press conference on Monday, Aakash Healthcare, Dwarka informed that a 2-stage surgery was conducted to cure the osteomyelitis and reconstruct her femur shaft by using her mother's calf bone (fibula graft). The surgery was successful and the girl is recovering well.

"She was diagnosed with chronic osteomyelitis acquired during the surgery of the right femur following which she complained of pain and swelling of the right thigh along with fever. The patient was admitted to the hospital on 16 August 2021. She was found to have [a] deformity and pain in the thigh, crepitation (a crackling sound upon movement), and a painful range of motion", the hospital said during the press conference.

In the first stage of operation, the dead and infected part of the girl's femur bone was removed and an antibiotic spacer was placed at that site. After a gap of 6 weeks, the spacer was removed and her femoral shaft (thigh bone) was reconstructed using a fibula graft taken from her mother in the second stage of the surgery.

"She was brought just in time as osteomyelitis is a rare but serious infection that affects about 2 out of every 10,000 people. The condition is prevalent among kids. This is a chronic condition and remains with the patient for the rest of their life. But if it is left untreated, there is a high possibility of sepsis developing which can ultimately lead to death. She was discharged after satisfactory recovery after 4 days. She can resume her normal outdoor activities in 1 to 1.5 years", Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Director – Orthopaedics, Joint Replacement and Spine Surgery who led the complex surgery told Sputnik.

According to the doctors, her mother was the perfect donor as she was the closest relative with minimal chances of histogenetic incompatibility leading to complications.