Sunita's spinal surgery

Baby Sunita Debnath was born by caesarean section, after 2 long days of labour, on the 11th of August 2011. Her father and mother are Vikash Debnath and Beloka Debnatha from Mayapur in Nadia district. Vikash is a small scale seller of toiletries in the village and Beloka looks after the children.

Baby Sunita was born with part of the spinal column in a sack outside her body which appears as a large growth on the lower back. She has suffered immense pain from birth. She did have some antibiotic cover in the hospital but her parents were given no instruction to keep the swelling covered or clean, essential to protect from infection even in a normal environment. In the meantime Sunita's father, Vikash, took her to Kolkata to see a neurosurgeon. The doctor would not say anything until an MRI had been done.  One devotee had a contact whose relative owns and runs a diagnostic centre in Kolkata and they agreed to do the MRI and charge only 50% of the normal charge. The results of the MRI showed that Sunita was an excellent candidate for surgery with a strong chance for good recovery as there was only a very small amount of spinal cord in the swelling. Gauranga Simha Prabhu then set about raising money for Sunita's operation.

After a series of up and down trips to Kolkata and a lot of confusion caused by various doctors Sunita's back eventually became infected and she was admitted as an emergency case on the 15th of September. The surgery was performed on the 17th of September and it went well. You can see from the photo how much the swelling has reduced. She was released from hospital on the 27th of September and is now back home.

Gauranga Simha and his wife collected a fair amount of the money for the operation - R61,000/- so far - the bulk coming from South Africa and Italy, with smaller contributions from Russia and Mayapur. The balance - R25,000/-- he borrowed from various places so that money needs to be returned.

Sunita will also require a further operation to place a shunt in order to remove fluid from the brain. This will take place after approximately one week. So far we have been unable to get an exact estimation for that operation as the brain surgeon is out of station. We will keep you posted as soon as we find out exactly how much it will be but it seems it will be in the region of R50,000/-. We request all the readers to donate generously for Sunita. We will keep you updated on her recovery.