Fijian women back on feet after complex surgery

NEW DELHI: A successful surgery at a Delhi Hospital helped a 60-year-old bedridden Fijian woman to stand after a year. According to doctors, Ms Mayawati, a Fijian national of Indian origin, was a patient of rheumatoid arthritis with severely osteoporotic and weak bones and she had also sustained a fracture and a ligament injury around her knee after a fall, making her bed ridden for a year.

Doctors claimed that considering her weak and osteoporotic bones, doctors at Fiji did not operate the fracture, which, in addition to the ligament injury, rendered the elderly Fijian bed-ridden and caused her to develop severe osteoarthritis of knee. Flying across miles, the Indian origin patient returned to her motherland and was admitted to a Delhi hospital for further treatment.

“When Mayawati came, she was in poor condition. Upon examination, it was found that the fracture sustained around her knee had caused severe deformity in that region and the ligaments were not functioning optimally. The problem was compounded by the factors, including her age, rheumatoid arthritis and severely osteoporotic and weak bones. These could have been the factors which must have made doctors from other hospitals reluctant to undertake surgeries,” said consultant, joint replacement and arthroscopy surgeon, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), Dr Vivek Mahajan.

“We used special implants for the process that catered to the requirements of osteoporotic and weak bones. Apart from her fracture, we also treated her for osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis using latest medication,” Dr Mahajan added.