10-year-old abandoned Varanasi boy to undergo 28-hour surgery

Ten years after a newborn boy was abandoned in the fields near Varanasi and was mauled by a wild animal, 12 doctors from the private Bombay Hospital will do a path-breaking surgery to finally reconcontrct his once-tattered right leg.

Manish Singh from Varanasi in UP is scheduled to undergo a marathon 28-hour supra major surgery on his right leg in the next few days. Two anaesthetists, two paediatric surgeons, three orthopaedic surgeons, five plastic surgeons, and 12 nursing staff will conduct the surgery.

Within hours of being born, with his umbilical cord still attached to him, Manish was abandoned in a sugarcane field in a village near Varanasi. His entire thigh and calf muscle of his right leg were torn apart by, probabaly, a wild dog. A farm labourer saw him lying in a pool of blood and took him to hospital. From then onwards started Manish's miraculous journey from the brink of death to now, final recovery and a healthy life.

Doctors found extensive damage to his blood vessels, muscles, nerve and skin in the thigh and the calf region. These are collectively responsible for overall survival, function and the shape of the limb, enhancing one's ability to lift the ankle and walk properly.

This will be the third such surgery that Manish will undergo in 10 years. But doctors say this will be the final surgery. At present he is studying in the 5th standard and stays in the shelter of SOS Children's Villages of India, an NGO working towards the welfare of the poor and needy children at Varanasi.

"In my career spanning 40 years, I have never seen or heard of a case like this. The kid has already undergone two major surgeries and all set for one more surgery. I hope this will be the final one," Dr Ashok Gupta, leading plastic surgeon who has been looking after the kid's health for the past 10 years,said. He will lead the team of doctors in the marathon surgery.

"It is called the muscle transfer surgical procedure... We need to take blood vessels from other parts of his body and attach it to his right thigh and calf to do the corrective surgery. According to his height and growth we need to do the surgery after a certain age. So his first surgery was when he was four months old, the second when he was five years old and now the third when he is 10." Gupta said.

The muscle transfer procedure has been used extensively in reconstructive surgery to provide immediate vascular soft tissue cover to a variety of surgical and / traumatic defects. They have been used as a carrier of new blood supply to overlying skin or underlying bone.

Manish was all praise for the doctors. "It is thanks to my earlier surgeries that I am able to walk... There is still a slight bend in my leg and doctors have said my leg would be perfect after this surgery," he said.

His foster mother Nirmala Singh said she's been with Manish since Day 1. "He is very courageous... He is good in studies. We are thankful to the Bombay hospital administration and the team of doctors who are very cooperative." Singh too is with the SOS Children's Villages at Varanasi.

Bombay hospital has decided to do the entire surgery free of cost.