1st crowdfunded surgery in Puttur helps Kerala boy

Mangaluru: A team of doctors performed the first crowdfunded regenerative surgery in the Puttur City Hospital on a 17-year-old boy.
The teenager had difficulty walking and straightening his leg after he suffered burns when he was one-year-old.
Dr Gaurav B Shetty, plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said: “The boy from Kerala had suffered more than 20% burns below his waist, especially on the back of the right knee. He hails from an economically poor background and soon after the incident, he received treatment at a local hospital with dressings 16 years ago.”
Shetty said: “The boy suffered post-burn contracture in the right knee and developed fixed flexion deformity. Between the age of 7 and 14, he underwent about seven surgeries and even skin grafting, but as the region is prone to wear and tear, there was no improvement. The turning point came when the imam of a mosque saw the boy who had not been to a regular school, would wear a lungi and could neither sit nor stand when offering namaz. He decided to help him.”
The imam approached Muhammad Azar and Nasar CK of the charity organisation Badusha Brothers of Chettukundu.
The charity group approached Khalid C Palakki, the director of Manzoor Hospital in Kanhangad, who in turn referred the case to Dr K. Kunhahammed, chief medical officer and senior consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist at the hospital.
It was Dr Kunhahammed who realised that the patient needed a problem-solving speciality and they met Dr Shetty.
“Since we could not import the tissue from other nearby regions of the patient’s body as it was scarred by previous burns, we had to opt for tissue engineering substitutes or the use of artificial skin,” Dr Shetty said.
The total cost was about Rs 4 lakh and all the doctors involved reduced their fees. The money was raised through crowdfunding in four weeks. The surgeries were performed from August 17 till the first week of September.
The team of experts included anaesthesiologist Dr Mahalingeshwara Prasad S, plastic surgeon Dr Gaurav B Shetty and Anish K Manuel of the company that supplied the artificial skin. The post-operative rehabilitation and physiotherapy was taken care of by Vinay Prakash.
The boy has been declared fit for discharge.
Once out of hospital, step-down care will be monitored by Dr Prajwal K. Rao, an aesthetic and cosmetic surgeon of the Shashirekha Multispeciality Hospital in Kanhangad. This facility is close to the boy’s home in Kerala.
Dr Shetty said: “This is a case of great rapport and teamwork by doctors of two neighbouring states towards an underprivileged patient.”