Shockingly, until four days ago, the 20–year–old from Gujarat never complained of any chest pain or breathing problem to his parents
Afew hours delay in reaching the hospital would have cost 20–year–old Santosh Rabat, who works in a brick kiln his life. Santosh was living with a 17–cm–long rapidly growing tumour in his chest cavity since childhood.

However, on Wednesday, after undergoing a rigorous six–hour long surgery at Sion Hospital, Santosh has got a new lease of life. A team of doctors from the Lokmanya Tilak Hospital on Wednesday surgically removed the three–kg tumour from his chest. When Rabat reached the Sion hospital, an endotracheal tube was inserted in him so that he could breathe, since the gigantic tumour had compressed his trachea. Doctors were surprised to see the CT scan images that showed the tumour spreading towards his left lung and touching the heart valve.

Dr Sajid Sayed, a cardiovascular thoracic surgeon of Sion hospital, who operated on Santosh said, “When he was unconscious. We shifted him to the ICU and put him on a ventilator. It was a difficult task to remove the tumour without touching the internal organs. The tumour had entered the backbone and ribs, thus we had made 36 cm incisions to enter the chest cavity and surgically removed it without hurting heart blood vessels.”

The doctors claim that this was perhaps the heaviest tumour they had removed from a patient’s chest. They have sent some portion of the tumour to the histopathology department and are waiting for the report. “If it is non–cancerous, Santosh will be allowed to go back to his village in a week’s time,” said Dr Sayed.

According to Santosh’s parents, who reside in Dahanu, “We never realised that our son had a tumour. He never had any chest pain or heart problem. However, four days ago, he complained of breathing problem at work. We immediately brought him to Sion Hospital,” said Dharma Rabat, Santosh’s father. With tears rolling down their cheeks, Santosh’s parents thanked the doctors of Sion Hospital, who gave a new lease of life to their son.

Times of India
24, February 2010
Lata Mishra