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Thalassemia major is characterized by the individual not being able to produce enough good hemoglobin. This is called ineffective erythropoiesis. This condition leads to a cascade of compensatory mechanisms. First it leads to massive bone marrow expansion, unusual organs become involved in attempting to make blood cellular components, the absorption of iron from the food intake increases and consequently there is severe organ damage.

This year a young couple with 11 month old baby girl named as Prachi Bhanushali contacted us for help with Bone Marrow Transplantation.

It was more than a year back when we a family who had two little girls suffering from thalassemia from Afghanistan approached Cure2Children Foundation for help with HLA typing. The family was overjoyed to find that both the girls had a match. The father of the girls is a driver and could not have afforded transplantation. Zwan family charities, Kabul decided to help the family and approached Dr Lawrence Faulkner for help with the transplantation.

Normally, when you tell a family which has a child who suffers from thalassemia, that they have a match, at least for one moment you expect to see a smile. This was not the case when we broke the news to five-year-old Nirmitha's family. She was detected with thalassemia within the first year of her birth and ever since she was dependent on monthly blood transfusions. Though they did come for the follow-up meetings, the expression on their face did not suggest that they were willing to go for the transplant.

How do we offer transplants to more children?

How do we make transplantations safer?

How to we ensure that the best quality is delivered at the least cost?

How to we setup an environment which enables everybody involved to achieve personal and professional excellence?

A friend in need is a friend indeed. Information made available when required the most is often invaluable. Helplines are meant and designed to serve this purpose. Our social structure often provides helplines for a lot of prevalent problems. 10 years ago it was a surprise for our little team that there is no helpline to help in search of blood. It was on September 13 2006 that the statewide helpline for blood in Karnataka took flight. Today it serves as a lifeline to thousands of patients every month.

After the end of a long busy day as I sat to look at some videos, I got a call from Dr Reshma. She informed me that a child who is taking treatment at our centre needed an urgent appendicectomy – removal of his appendix which had become infected and inflamed. It was a Saturday night. The patient had travelled from a place 200km away from Bangalore and reached a prominent Government Hospital in Bangalore for the urgent surgery. However, there was no surgeon available at the hospital.

When I walked up the stairs of Samraksha today I realised that a little girl was peeping down from the stairs. The look in her eyes told me that she was waiting for me. I shared the usual pleasantries with the family and walked across a hall full of children and parents straight to the doctor's room. We had a meeting scheduled for the day and soon I found myself with 2 of my friends in a room discussing the future roadmaps.

As little children, we all looked forward eagerly to the summer holidays. For the team at Project Samraksha and the school-going children who come for treatment there, the anticipation for the summer holidays is just the same, however for a different reason. We plan to make use of every holiday season to give deferoxamine infusion to the children who are not responding sufficiently to oral chelators. Deferoxamine infusion can be very effective in controlling iron levels in the body.

Dear Editor,

It was interesting to go through the Sankalp Patrika and also noted the varoius studies made in the treatment of thalassemia children.

Did read about the mention of the institute.

I am happy to state that I have appointed a doctor to look after all thalassemia children.