Six-year-old African girl undergoes complex surgery in Bengaluru, doing well now

A six-year-old African girl underwent a complex surgery at Fortis hospital in Bengaluru for restoring her burnt food pipe and intestine.

The girl had burnt her food pipe and a part of her intestine after accidentally consuming floor-cleaning acidic liquid, while playing on the floor at her home, that severely damaged her food pipe and intestine.

She could not consume anything orally with the damage to her food pipe and intestine. She was fed directly to her small intestine through a tube by creating an opening in her abdomen.

Her grieving parents could not see her suffering for over two years, when she was fed only through the tube, before finding a permanent solution to her injury from doctors in Bengaluru.

After examining her, doctors found that the burnt part in her food pipe had narrowed the connection between the food pipe, stomach and intestine.

According to Dr Manish Joshi, the chief surgical gastroenterologist and advanced laparoscopic and robotic surgeon, said that her complex condition required a multi-disciplinary approach for surgery to completely reconstruct her food pipe.

Doctors dexterously removed the burnt portion of the food pipe and cut a part of her stomach to create a gastric conduit (tube), which was then attached to the portion of food pipe that was not damaged, finally reconstructing the passage for food and liquids.

Post the success of this procedure by doctors, the girl’s condition became stable and was able to consume fluids orally and was discharged from the hospital.