Moubani Karmakar, 18, who suffered frequent seizures, was diagnosed with brain tumour
Moubani Karmakar, an 18-year-old student who suffered frequent seizures, was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to undergo a surgery. But unlike most patients, Moubani stayed awake as doctors worked at removing the tumour — moving her right arm or leg or counting up to 100 when instructed to do so.
The tumour in her brain was located in the motor area on the left side of the brain — the part responsible for movements on the right side of the body. The lesion was also critically close to the area in the brain that controls speech, said neurosurgeon Amitabha Chanda, who conducted an “Awake Craniotomy” on Moubani, said talking to journalists on Tuesday.
Doctors had warned the girl that if she went under the knife there was a high risk that the right side of her body would become paralysed or she may suffer a loss of speech. It was thus decided that the operation will be conducted under local anaesthesia and sedation so that she can interact with her doctors throughout the procedure, said Dr. Chanda.
“It sounds odd that somebody’s head is being opened up and the surgeon is fiddling in the brain while the patient is awake. But that was the need of the hour,” he added.
The problem lies in the fact that it is difficult to distinguish between the tumour and normal brain tissue, particularly at the junction, he explained. During the operation, if Moubani felt any discomfort in her right limbs she could tell Dr. Chanda and he would know that he had moved close to the brain tissue. The doctors could also ask her to move an arm or speak out loud so that they knew that they had not caused any damage.
The high-risk procedure depends on a great deal of coordination between the anaesthetist and the surgeon, as well as cooperation from the patient. Even a slight jerk could lead to the bruising of a blood vessel, causing significant damage.
There was also the chance of the patient having a fit during the surgery and so had to be administered high doses of anticonvulsants, Dr. Chanda said.
“Some phases of the operation — when the incision was made or when cutting through the bone — were painful. However, once access to the brain is achieved the surgery is painless. So the anaesthesia and the sedation had to be carefully regulated to keep her asleep during the painful parts and awake later on,” said anaesthetist Sucharita Chakrabarti. The four-hour-long procedure cost the Karmakar family Rs.2 lakh.
Keywords: brain surgery, Moubani Karmakar
Congratulations Moubani Karmakar ! Hats off to Neurosurgeon Amitabha Chandan and the Anaesthesist(it would have been good if the Name of the anaestheisit was provided), Great Job!!
Thanks to The Hindu for putting out this fantastic article. It was a
unique operation which required a collective effort of all the actors
(including patient) and eventually it was a win-win situation for
everyone. I take my hat off to those doctors and the teenager who
despite being aware of the risks courageously went under the knife. A
lot of mind-boggling accomplishments are made which go unnoticed. The
Hindu should put out more such articles.
Wonderful achievement of the doctors team and congratulations to Moubani. With such extraordinary talent available in the country, India could well be a medical tourist center.
Great strength and courage showed both by patient & doctors...
Very good on the part of the surgeons. Did they carry out a functional MRI prior to
surgery? It is always better to do pre-surgical mapping--to ascertain the
functional aspects of the neural tissue before operating.
All the congratulatory messages would have turned accusatory if the surgery went
wrong--patient losing several brain functions or even dying. Thankfully, the
surgeons were sufficiently skilled.
there will be a day in future when pre-surgical mapping, functional brain
research will happen as a routine procedure in this country.
Kudos to that brave girl. Imagining myself in such an operation itself gave me goosebumps. Congratulations to the doctor and Moubani Karmakar.
A salute to the doctors !! And , the bravery of the girl has to be commended !!
Congratulations to the doctors involved and wish a very quick recovery of the patient!!! This is fantastic coordination within all schools of medicine and great courage and cooperation from the patient.Our Indian doctors always keep us very proud!!! My best wishes to Karmarkar and hope she becomes normal very soon and lead a total healthy long life!!! Best wishes!!!
Congratulations to the doctor. And also a very well written article throwing light to all possible doubts that may arise in the mind of the reader.
Congrats to all
Wonderful. Hearing such cases, we get amazed. Ms. Maubami, Get well soon. Our wishes with you. Couldn't stop to comment further... what a pity? Here our doctors are doing wonders to make best brains. Our politicians and systems are ensuring many such brain, actually drain !
India undoubtedly has good medical professionals. This is one classic example. Awesome work done by the doctors and special appreciations to the anesthetist. Prayers & wishes to Moubani.
Congratulation to all the doctors and his team. Get well soon sister.....,
This is an incredible achievement, Congrats to both doctors and the mettle patient. Since the day I had undergone surgery just few months before, I have developed immense respect for doctors faternity. May be we have cutting edge technologies, medicines which makes you immortal.. whatever it may be. But there is no such power, assurance, confidence like doctors. Though they know that the job at hand is tough, but their moral reinforcement is invaluable. With mutual faith and belief we can achieve anything and this story is just a reflecton of that.
Kudos to the team work. It is indeed praise worthy task done by the task. Definitely there is no dearth of excellent doctors and allied staff in India.
Neurosurgery performed just with local aneasthesia!
Get Well soon. CONGRATULATIONS to all the Doctors and the entire team involved in leasing a new life to her.
Medical and surgical marvel. Well done, Doctors. India is proud of people like you. All the Best to you and the team and the patient Ms. Moubani Karmakar. With Prayers to Almighty Sri. Venkateswaraswami to Bless all.
What we commoners have known till now is that a dentist would tap each tooth to find the one that needs treatment.Extending this methodology to surgically remove a tumor from the brain,while the feed back is taken from the patient under the knife is a LIVE THRILLER.Our Best Wishes to the Surgical Team and the Patient.
Moubani Karmakar is a luckiest girl. God has sent Dr.Chanda as His emissary to save her life.The service of anaestheist Mr.Sucharita Chakrabarti is also commendable one.I hereby convey my blessing to Moubani and congratulation to both Doctor and Anaestheist.
A wonderful achievement in medical field ,an operation held with co- operation of patient too.This will encourage young doctor to have an inspiration an to do some thing similar to it..
A wonderful achievement
Bravo Moubani Karmarkar, all the best.Congrats doctors Chanda and Sucharita Chakrabarti and their team for their excellant work.
Indeed a great achievement. Congratulations to the medical team. Bravo Moubani! very courageous. God bless you.
Medical profession is indeed a marvel! Even to read through this gives me goosebumps. I wonder how the surgery team, patient and family would have felt during the ordeal. Despite all the other things out there, humans are simply great!
Awesome ! kudos to doctor ..
This is great news and the fact that it cost them 2 lakh is fantastic! Congrats to the Doctor and his team.
So much medical talent in this great nation of ours! And yet, we shortchange our citizens with respect to rupee devaluation. The procedure cost 2 lakhs from competent doctors; in the US a similar procedure, assuming insurance covered it, would have run into several hundred thousand dollars. Even assuming $40,000 for the procedure in the US (a very low estimate), it translates to Rs 5 to the dollar - yes five rupees to one dollar. Why are we short selling our nation's wealth, labor, skills, and talents? It is just due to poor leadership and lack of vision and integrity on the part of our politicians, and our own cussed short-sightedness, inability to function as a society, and lack of self-confidence that we cannot come up as a nation and take our rightful place on the world stage with our heads held high. This is the reason why several people get fed up and disgusted with the wretched Indianness of it all, and leave the nation.
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