Foreign national kid suffering from Morbid Obesity with OSA gets life at Delhi’s hospital

An 8-year-old boy from Saudi Arabia who was suffering from Morbid Obesity with OSA with abnormal weight of 84 kg, height 4 feet has got new lease of life at a Delhi’s hospital. The kid was not able to sleep as his Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OAS) was so severe that he couldn’t sleep uninterruptedly for one hour and has to awake whole night. Boy was very much addicted to chocolates and fast food.

After his family visited India, they were advised psychological and pediatric Endocrinologist counseling but his family wanted some definitive, fast result procedure to save his life. The family wanted their ailing boy to undergo Bariatric Surgery.

In the course of treatment, the family visited Rosewalk Hospital and was counseled by Dr Rajat Goel, Senior Consultant, Bariatric and Laparoscopic Surgeon.

However, Dr Goel refused surgery as kid’s age was not permiting such high level of surgery. The Bariatric (Metabolic or Life style modification) Surgery is like laparoscopic Surgery, gall bladder or hernia or appendix surgery that requires  4 to 5 key holes to perform it.

Additionally, the Bariatric surgery is usually advised at the age of 14 and is being considered normal for the patients above 18 years. But the kid was under ten years of age.

“Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a life-threatening condition which is associated with morbid obesity. Patient have apnea sleep (Air hunger) in night and feel sleepy throughout day and can be life threatening. It requires BiPAP machine to sleep overnight. It can be treated by losing weight with bariatric surgery and BiPAP machine can be removed in most patients as early as first week following surgery”, said Dr Goyal.

However, his family was later counselled about the procedure and all its pros and cons for one month but since child was having severe OSA as breathing was interrupted during sleep for longer than 10 seconds at least 5 times per hour, was advised BiPAP machine to breath which he could not tolerate, patient was taken for Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy after anesthesia and other clearances and informed consent.

The child lost 10 kg of weight in the first week time and could sleep easily without need of BiPAP machine. Due to hormonal changes after surgery, he stopped eating chocolates and was counseled by dietician along with his family for healthy lifestyle like 40 minutes activity daily and healthy food intake.

Dr Goyal said that Bariatric surgery undertaken on right patient at right time can be like saving with long lasting results. Life after surgery is like patient becoming a new born baby with new taste and control over eating which lasts for 6 months and all eating habits can be reformed due to hormonal changes in bariatric surgery.