New Delhi: A 46 year old Delhi lady breathed a long sigh of relief but certainly not as long as she bore the trauma of a complex Hernia developed after her C-section. It was end of her 20 year battle with the condition, thanks to flawless surgery in Sir Ganga Ram. The ease she felt after surgery was beyond her words. The icing on the cake is that she got relief of a life time for free.
She got this debilitating condition as an aftermath of C-section for her second son. The size continued to grow ever since. Her example serves as a reminder of the consequence of no good follow up after C-section. In rural and far flung areas, such occurrences are common. They suffer in silence because of no access to a hospital like Sir Ganga Ram. The negligence after C-section may lead to huge hernia making life a hell. In this kind of hernia condition even internal body organs move and come out.
Her surgery was done by Dr Ashish Dey and his team. Dr Ashish Dey is a Senior Consultant in the Department of Laparoscopic surgery and mostly performs Laparoscopic surgery or Robotic surgeries. Hernia surgery, particularly those of ‘Complex’ cases, are his forte.
Hernia is a condition when the abdominal contents, particularly the small and large gut and ‘Omentum’, which is like a ‘curtain of fat’, comes out of the weakened ‘defect’ in the abdominal wall. Large Complex Hernias may have a substantial amount of the contents outside the normal abdominal cavity.
For the last 2 years it was getting increasingly symptomatic because of the increase in size causing pain and fullness of the abdomen. Increasing pain caused her to avoid exercise and resulted in increased weight gain and also turned diabetic. There were two episodes in the recent past when her bowels had ‘obstructed’ which meant she was not able to pass stools or wind. Secondly The patient was distraught because of the symptoms of abdominal pain and repeated bouts of ‘Obstruction’. She was not able to effectively perform her normal daily routine activities and even simple daily activities like coughing, passing motion and urine and even deep breathing was not possible comfortably.
The day after the surgery she was completely pain free. She was completely relieved of her symptoms and moved around with an abdominal belt on the second day after surgery and discharged in a few days on a normal diet. She was profusely thankful that she came to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for her surgery. Her only regret was that she should have gotten it done much earlier. Though such surgery is very expensive, she got it free because of belonging to EWS category. Free treatment of poor patients in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is part of its great tradition of medical philanthropy unheard of in that of other hospitals.
Large hernias can be highly debilitating for patients due to the combination of pain, functional impairments, potential complications, and psychological and social implications. Early diagnosis and appropriate management are crucial in order to minimize the impact of large hernias on patients’ lives.
