Rare case of total recovery: After month-long paraplegia, spinal TB patient able to move again

In a rare case of total recovery from paraplegia, an 18-year-old waiter from Mahul in suburban Mumbai has started walking again after having been affected by spinal tuberculosis that eventually led to total loss of nerve sensations in his lower body.

Rohit Venkatesh Shetty first experienced pain in his back in September this year. His family claims his condition quickly deteriorated within a month. “It was a mild pain at first, but nothing more. In few days he completely stopped walking,” said sister Lakshmi Shetty, a Class X student.

Shetty, who completed his matriculation recently, started working at a hotel in Kurla six months ago. In October, he first experienced numbness in the right leg. “Within days, I could not sense anything in right leg. And then my left leg also stopped functioning,” he said.

His mother consulted three private doctors in the slums of Govandi but when medication did not work, he underwent an MRI and CT scan in Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital in south Mumbai.

In October, doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis of the spine. He was immediately put on first line anti-TB treatment.

But since he suffered a crack in the spinal bone, he was referred by medicine department for an urgent surgery.

“The abscess due to TB bacteria grew and caused compression on the spinal cord. In his case, it also led to a crack in spinal bone,” said orthopaedic surgeon Dr Dhiraj Sonawane.

Since space in the spinal cord is limited, the growth of the abscess led to nerve compression and affected the lower half of his body.

The spread of the TB abscess, Sonawane added, is quick and can lead to permanent or partial paraplegia. In Shetty’s case, he could not pass urine or stool on his own. He suddenly became bed-bound.

The orthopaedic units in JJ and GT hospitals have studied 40 cases of partial paraplegia in these patients. “We have not seen a full recovery in any case if there is total paraplegia,” Dr Sonawane added.

Shetty underwent spinal surgery to decompress his nerves on November 17. The TB has affected his Thoracic 8, 9 and 10 vertebrae. A resident doctor said that he has been undergoing physiotherapy since a month to increase leg movement.

“Patients who have paraplegia for a month and that too total loss of movements find it hard to start walking again. It is unusual that his body movements have returned to normalcy,” Sonawane said.

Shetty will be discharged from hospital in a week. “I had started working six months ago in a hotel as waiter. Apart from me, my father earns for our family,” he said.

Doctors are waiting for his culture test reports to ensure he is not infected by drug resistant TB bacteria. “There was a delay because the three doctors who treated me could not diagnose spinal TB,” Shetty said.

He was enrolled under Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana for free health insurance. The surgery cost can escalate to Rs 4-6 lakh in private healthcare. Implant cost is Rs 35,000 to put screws in spinal bone.

“He will require monthly checks,” said medical superintendent Dr M B Tayade.