It was like getting a new life for seven-year-old Somya Tiwari who could finally hold her head straight on her own. Somya, who belongs to Gujarat, suffered from a rare condition that caused her neck to tilt at 90 degrees. However, the miracle of medical science helped her get help in this rare condition. Somya’s parents first noticed a lump on the right side of her neck when she was just 6 months old. The small lump slowly got bigger and caused a tilt in her neck. They approached local doctors and the baby underwent two major surgeries, but there was no improvement in her condition.
After getting no relief, Somya’s parents approached Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai on the recommendation of a family friend. According to news agency ANI, Somya’s father Nilesh Tiwari brought his only daughter to the hospital and doctors recommended another surgery to improve her condition. After this, the girl underwent a multistage surgery performed by an experienced team of doctors of spine surgery, paediatric, paediatric orthopaedic, ENT and plastic surgery.
Speaking about Somya’s condition, Dr Agnivesh Tikoo, spine surgeon, said that she was suffering from the benign fibroblastic proliferation of sternocleidomastoid muscle, which is also known as fibromatosis colli. This rare condition generally affects the ride of the neck and is common in male infants as compared to female ones.
In Somya’s case, the neck tilt was so bad that the first and second cervical spine bones had split from their original position.The MRI and CT scan reports revealed a bony bat that extended from the collarbone to the mastoid bone located behind the ear.
The surgery was carried out in three stages, where the first stage involved removal of the bony bar along with tight muscle fibres. In the second stage surgery that was performed three weeks after the first one, doctors fixed the slipped cervical vertebrae. Somya remained in the halo vest for three months before it was replaced with a special collar bone.
Finally, in the third stage, a minor procedure was carried out to make her neck more flexible to aid in physiotherapy. Somya can now see straight with both eyes and can hold her neck straight.
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