The quest to save her daughter from eye cancer brought Namika from Lahore in Pakistan to Hyderabad. And the effort did not go in vain with specialists at the city-based L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) successfully treating the three-year-old Fatima for Retinoblastoma. A beaming mother, Namika said, “I thank the doctors of ‘Hindustan’ for saving my daughter’s vision”.
Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Namika said her daughter showed signs of squint and after her futile attempts at getting required treatment in Pakistan, she contacted Dr. Swathi Kaliki, Consultant Ocular Oncologist, at LVPEI. “Doctors in our country go abroad to serve, but Indians that way are lucky as doctors here stay back and provide quality health care,” she remarked.
Dr. Swathi said Retinoblastoma was the most common kind of childhood eye cancer on which there is no proper awareness among general public as well as the medical fraternity. “The symptoms are a white reflex (shining eyes), squint, redness or swelling of eyes or change in the colour of iris in which case, the child should be checked for possibilities of Retinoblastoma,” she said.
The eye disease is curable if the tumour is detected early and timely intervention through chemotherapy, she added.
Oncologist K. Vijayanand Reddy said 95 per cent of Retinoblastoma can be treated if detected early and in case of advanced stages, bigger tumours, which means losing an eye, could be managed to save the life of a patient. On possible side-effects of chemotherapy, he said they were the same as in adults, but children usually tolerate it better and recover faster.
Arati Prajapati of Kolkota, whose daughter had the problem in both the eyes and had to lose an eye, rued the lack of awareness on Retinoblastoma and said that timely intervention would have aided her child better. “Her one eye is treated now and perhaps even the other would have been treated if detected early,” she said.
Namika comes to L.V. Prasad Eye Institute after failing to get required treatment for her daughter’s eye cancer (Retinoblastoma) in Pakistan
