An Iraqi woman underwent a life-saving surgery at Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon, to remove a cancerous growth in the throat that affected her food pipe as well as her voice box, making it impossible for her to consume food.
Several months ago, Saana underwent a surgery for a thyroid-related complications. However, the surgery failed and resulted in major complications in her condition.
“Whatever the mother of three consumed would come out through a wound in her neck. Another round of examination, including a biopsy, revealed it was due to cancer growing out of her food pipe or oesophagus,” noted consultant GI Surgery Rakesh Dhurkhare.
The 37-year-old finally came to the hospital here. The doctors decided to remove the food pipe and voice box in order to save her life.
“The cancerous growth was eight-month-old and removed in an over eight-hour surgery,” said Dr. Dhurkhare.
“The food pipe was reconstructed by pulling up the stomach and connecting it to the remaining healthy portion of the food pipe. The surgery to remove the larynx involved a voice restoration procedure to enable her to speak after recovery through speech therapy. The cancer originating from the food pipe had eroded her voice box, damaging left half of her larynx.”
“The cancer was high up in the neck, so we had to bring the new food pipe up to the base of the tongue. Also, half the stomach could not be used for making the new food pipe as it was already destroyed during the previous surgery,” he added.
Five days after surgery, she was able to drink water after eight long months.