Story of Mexican patient’s Biliary Atresia Surgery in India

Having babies is the ultimate pleasure a person experiences in life. We yearn to have healthy, happy babies and wish for them the best of everything. As a first-time parent, this feeling is entirely new and different, and just aptly becomes dreadful when something unusual is found with the little angel. In my child’s case, it was jaundice extended which turned out to be biliary atresia, a rare condition in infants. All thanks to Dr. Ravi Mohanka Top Hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon in India and his wonderful team in India and Forerunners Healthcare- Medical Service Provider that saved my precious bundle of joy in all possible ways. I owe her life to the best efforts put in by them in treating my child, and I can safely call them the God-sent angels who gave my baby the life she is living today.

You must be wondering what it is all about, and who I am sharing my story with you. Well, I am a woman from Mexico of Indo-African origin. My name is Samantha. I faced the toughest time of life when my first baby came into the world. We named her Gabriella and lovingly call her Gabby. So, when Gabby was handed over to me just after the delivery, I found her eyes a bit pale. My doctor told me that it is common for babies born a bit jaundiced and that the paleness will subside in 3-4 days. The baby was quiet and sleeping mostly, so all seemed normal with her.

Cut to about four weeks after her birth date, I noticed that the paleness has not gone away. There were certain other things which seemed not normal, such as:

I also noticed that Gabby had become quite irritable and the abdomen looked a bit enlarged than normal. Being the first time parent, all of this alarmed me to no extent and I decided to put my fears to rest by seeing my pediatrician. She gave me an appointment about three days later, which mounted my worries a lot. Anyway, I went to see her. She asked me the questions related to her feeding habits, about all that paleness. She also pointed out the swelling in the abdomen and asked me to get certain tests done which included:

All these reports took about another one and a half-day. The doctor gave some oral supplements to keep the baby’s nutritional requirements well-met as she suspected it to be something related to liver abnormality. When we received the reports and went to see the doctor again, she told me that there is a strong possibility of biliary atresia.

She told us that biliary atresia is a rare condition found in infants. Just one in 15000 children are found with this condition. So, the treatment also is costly and has no alternative than doing diagnostic surgery to find the exact condition of the liver. All this fell on me like a bolt from the blue and I started crying right there. Thankfully, my partner (the father of my child) was with me and acted like strong moral support. Both the doctor and my partner consoled me and made it very clear to me that I will have to be my strongest version for the coming months.

My doctor very patiently told me what the disease means and what it does. She told us that biliary atresia is a disease in which the bile from the liver fails to come to the gall bladder due to blocked bile ducts or absence of biliary tree in the child’s liver. This abnormality causes liver cirrhosis eventually and is certainly fatal if left untreated. She suggested getting a small diagnostic surgery done. It was to be followed by corrective surgery in which the bile if accumulated, is drained, and the damaged ducts of the liver are removed. She told us this whole procedure is called the Kasai procedure.

We came home feeling totally lost and scared. We knew that our child is in danger and that the problem has to be solved at the earliest. Our doctor told certain very important things about biliary atresia, which were:

“Why my baby only?” – I felt very frustrated. It was not at all expected as my baby was doing really well, and we had no idea something so dangerous was happening with her. Her inability to communicate her discomfort broke her heart completely.

We knew our baby was in danger, and naturally, we wanted a fast and feasible solution for the situation. We consulted some of the liver care groups in Mexico but were completely disheartened by the amount of money the treatment required. The long waiting time was another factor that made the situation more difficult. We, at a point, started thinking that we had lost the battle, even before we started to fight it. Things, but changed miraculously one day when my friend from India came to see me. She had heard a lot about medical tourism in India and shared the concept with us.

She told us that in India, the best treatments of all kinds are available. People from all over the world come in millions of numbers every year to this country for medical surgeries. And mostly they have Successful Biliary Atresia Surgery in India Patient Story all over. The country is known for world-class hospitals and medical services. Medical tourism companies are also quite active and act fast and in a very responsible way. We read about the cases where everything was arranged in just a period of a month or so.

We immediately started Googling about the medical tourism companies in India and tried to collect as much information as possible. After several hits and trials, we zeroed in on the name Forerunners Healthcare Consultants. This was one medical tourism expert that had a fabulous track record and had explained their way of working in great detail on their website. With all hope and courage, we dialed the number given on the website. A woman with an angelic voice took our call and asked us about our concern. We had several questions to ask, some of which were: