Rajkot: Amid Covid spread, five kids get new lease of life from disorder

RAJKOT: Parents of four-year-old Meet Goswami were heart-broken when their son’s viral fever and bodyache suddenly left his feet paralysed. They had no clue that Meet was suffering from Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), an uncommon disorder, until they admitted him to Rajkot Civil Hospital in March. After three months of hospitalization, Meet has ‘walked out’ with his relieved parents.
Along with Meet, four other children, all in the age group of 3-8 years, have been successfully cured of GBS, a disorder caused by viral infection that could have left them paralysed for life or proved fatal too, had they not got the treatment in time.

Meet’s father Hemantgiri, a driver, said, “He was discharged on May 28. I didn’t have enough savings to spend on my son’s treatment. I would have had to borrow money, had the hospital not provided free treatment to my son.”
GBS affects the nerves that control the movement of the body and damages muscles that even control breathing. “Usually, paralysis starts from the leg and progresses to upper limbs, neck muscle, throat muscles and ultimately the respiratory system. All these children were brought to the hospital when the disease had affected breathing, thus requiring ventilator support for more than two months,” said Dr Pankaj Buch, head of the paediatrics department at the civil Hospital.
The treatment time for such patients is at least 90 days and the cost per patient is around Rs 2.50 lakh. The entire expenditure for the five kids was borne by the hospital. According to Dr Buch, two of these five children had also developed cardiac complications, but these were treated in time.
Aaradhya, three-year-old daughter of a farmer from Mangrol, also developed GBS after suffering from chronic cough and bodyache. “She was diagnosed with GBS on January 26. After three months in Rajkot civil hospital, she was discharged on April 25,” said her father Bharat Mori from Kotada village of Mangrol taluka. Other children who got cured include seven-year-old Hussein from Maliya-Miyana, eight-year-old Harsh Parmar from Upleta and three-year-old Shivraj Lakshman from Dahod.
The children were also administered immunoglobulin therapy in which a hole is pierced through their throat to enable breathing through a windpipe ventilator. They are given food through the pipe inserted in their throat. The intravenous immunoglobulin price ranges between Rs 80,000 and Rs one lakh.
“I have been treating children for the last 23 years, but I haven’t seen kids survive with such severe GBS symptoms and being on a ventilator for so long,” Dr Buch added.