Image Credits: The New Indian Express

Doctors of SRM Institute of Medical Sciences, Chennai, saves the life of a 19-year-old teenager, who lived with her vital organs outside the body.
The Girl, Sauda Suleiman Amour, from Tanzania was born with a defective abdominal wall so her liver and a part of her intestine jutted out of her belly, only covered by a thin layer of skin. Sauda had undergone two failed operations before when she was 5 years old. Sufferers of this condition are usually operated on within hours of birth. Surgeons had to stretch her abdomen – using air for two weeks and using Botox to relax the muscles before they could put her organs back inside.
Because of this condition, Sauda had to quit the school before 4 years. she had to protect the lump from any injuries since it would have been fatal.
“The poor girl could not go to school or play outside because of the football-sized structure jutting outside her abdomen. When we saw her, we were shocked to see the entire liver outside the abdomen just covered by a layer of unhealthy skin. Our job was to put back the liver into the abdomen without causing any damage to her or her liver,’ Dr. Patta said. But there was no space in the abdomen, not even for a structure, a tenth of her present liver. If we were to succeed in this operation we needed to make adequate space in her abdomen. We instituted pre-operative pneumoperitoneum’ by poking a needle into her abdomen and pumping air in, progressively increasing doses over a two week period” said Dr. Radhakrishnan Patta,  director and senior consultant of SRM institute.
‘Every single day we used to pump enough air till she felt uncomfortable or breathless. She had to be put on a ventilator for four days after surgery while her abdomen got adjusted to its new tenant. A week after surgery she was on a liquid diet and up and about. Miss Amour’s wounds have healed very well and she has since got discharged and went back to Tanzania about a week ago.’ Dr.Patta said.
The procedure was very delicate where doctors gradually inflated Sauda’s abdomen using carbon dioxide in stages so that there would be room for the organs that had spent the last 19 years outside her body. During development in the womb, the baby’s abdominal organs – which can include the intestines, liver and other organs grow abnormally in an independent transparent tissue sac outside the belly button. In the early weeks of a pregnancy, parts of the digestive system actually grow outside of the baby’s body cavity in a normal pregnancy. But these parts of its body are supposed to return to the belly by the eleventh week of gestation. But Sauda’s liver never made it back into her body. It was a risky process, but everything went smoothly. Now that she is slowly recovering from the wounds inside and outside her body, she’ll soon be able to lead an ordinary life. All the thanks go to the doctors who performed their best to save the girl from a grueling condition!

Source: 1.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5857907/Indian-doctors-save-girl-19-lived-life-organs-outside-body.html

2.https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/190618/chennai-doctors-save-girl-who-lived-organs-outside-her-body.html

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