When Dharmendra Saini (name changed) walked into Dr KC Mohanty's clinic in 2008, he was in a bad way. Saini had been on treatment for TB for a year.
He'd been given first and second line drugs by a reputed city hospital, however, he didn't respond. The low persistent fever and bouts of hacking cough, remained. Dharmendra had bilateral pulmonary TB (where both lungs were affected), which had become drug resistant.
The extent of the TB was such that Dr Mohanty, told his parents that he had a 50% chance of survival. "By the time he came to me, Dharmendra's TB had become extensively drug resistant (XRD). The drugs that we were going to put him on would be cost about Rs10,000 a month, this along with other costs would mean that the they would have to spend lakhs. I wanted them to make an informed decision," he said.
Four years on, there is no outward sign that Dharmendra, has battled a life threatening disease. He seems, healthy and fit, like any 28-year-old. Of course, what is not evident, is that he's missing his left lung. "It's not much of a problem, but I get breathless if I have to climb stairs or break into a short run," he said.
"We put Dharmendra on a combination of first line, second line and reserve antibiotics along with immunomodulators to build up his immunity. Within two months, he started responding. He tested negative for TB," said Dr Mohanty. If the medicines responded then why did they take a lung out?
"His TB bacilli had become dormant , but they were still there. If his immunity levels went down in the future, the disease could relapse. And that could prove to be fatal. We didn't want to risk it, so we took the left lung out," he added.
Dharmendra doesn't seem to be too affected by his harrowing experience. The only effect TB has had on his life, is that he has had to give up his chemical production business. "The doctors told me to stay away from this line of work, because the fumes could harm me further. My family and friends too convinced me to do something else." What that something else is, Dharmendra hasn't figured out yet.
What he has figured out is that he wants to get married next year. He won't let us take a photo, because he fears that might harm his marriage chances.
TB, after all, still carries with it a certain stigma. He doesn't want to leave his prospective wife in the dark about the disease he claimed, but there is an uncertainty in his voice. Even though he's cured, it seems, his disease will continue to affect Dharmendra's life for some time to come.
