International Patient’s Successful Pediatric Hip Dysplasia Surgery

Ms. Ana, Romania
Pediatric Hip Dysplasia Surgery in India

Pediatric hip dysplasia surgery –Dr. Sanjay Sarup

Seeing your child crawling, taking the first step or jumping around is a memory people relish all their lives. These small activities, however, when becoming an hour of howling and crying in pain, can be tumultuous to any parent. Thankfully, when my baby faced such problems, the minimally invasive hip dysplasia surgery came like a life-changing option, which we, as a couple, grabbed upon at the first chance. This surgery changed the way my baby was maintaining the posture while standing and added more fun to her growing years.

Sorry, for not introducing myself before starting my experience as I am so excited to have got the best and Successful Pediatric Hip Dysplasia Surgery in India for my child. I am Svetlana from Romania, and my baby is an adorable girl Ana. My pregnancy was nothing too terrible, but the delivery time certainly was. When baby Ana was about to come out, she was found in the breech position. The operation was certainly painless and let me met my first baby within an hour of her coming to the world, but we were completely oblivious to the challenges waiting for us.

Whenever my midwife used to extend or bend her legs, a sound of clunk was heard, and Ana used to become quite cross and inconsolable. We thought it might be normal and continued to only pacify her with toys and rattles after every episode of this leg bending ritual. My midwife suggested there must be some issue with the hip, which I plainly ignored. Cut to the crawling stage, and I found that Ana was pushing one leg more than the other one. And whenever she threw her leg lying on the back, one of the legs spread more. I became a bit worried but did not think much as Ana never complained about any kind of discomfort.

My moment of awakening came when she was about 3. While trying to walk, she used to almost limp. This actually made me sit up and notice, and I immediately saw my family doctor know the reason behind it. My family doctor suggested seeing an orthopedic hinting about the possibility of DDH (Developmental displacement of Hip) or Hip Dysplasia. We searched for a trusted pediatric orthopedic in our country and had an appointment immediately.The orthopedic specialist suggested x-ray and ultrasound see the position of the hip joint. He told us that hip dysplasia is caused mostly to the children that are:

The results of the x-ray and ultrasound did show the symptoms which were explained to us as “dislocation of the ball from its socket eventually coming out.” Our hip is a ball and socket joint. The ball sits in the socket fittingly, but in the case of hip dysplasia, the ball tends to lose its position often. In the case of bilateral dysplasia, the effect is harder to find, which was the case with my Ana too. it was only due to abnormal skin creases on the hip and thigh and the distinct limp that we suspected of any such complication in her.

Our family doctor recommended going to a pediatric orthopedic in Romania, who was an Indian. He examined my child and confirmed our fears. He told us that many parents try to avoid surgery, in this case, thinking that the condition will improve on its own while growing. They tend to use braces, which actually give no relief, and the child is left to suffer all the life. The surgery takes more time to heal when done in the grown-up stage as the child tends to heal faster, so sooner it is, the better for the child. Moreover, hip dysplasia does require a period of about one year to make the child completely normal. Since the child has nothing much to do in terms of studies, etc. we thought that going for surgery right then will not cause any much loss to her activities too. But the question was who to approach for the surgery and where?

The situation of Ana, as per our orthopedic, suggested that it may require minimally invasive surgery. Only thinking of my child going under the knife started giving me sleepless nights, and there was some financial constraint too. I was living away from my husband and was going through the divorce procedure. So, I was in desperate need of some good doctor who had the proven track record in child surgeries and wasn’t costing me much too. While discussing the situation with my closest confidant, she suggested me to try the concept of medical tourism in India. Since our orthopedic was an Indian too, the faith kind of automatically built up.

We started looking for the Best Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeons in India and also about the organizations involved in medical tourism. We searched through the web about various medical tourism agencies. Our orthopedic also knew some names. We researched each and every option provided to us and finally, we chose to try Joint Replacement surgery hospital India- a group of best hospitals and surgeons. Before jumping to dial the numbers given in the portal of an organization called Joint Replacement surgery hospital India group, we prepared a list of questions, which were:

Once we thought the questions to be covering all our doubts, we dialed the inquiry number. A lady answered our call. She was very well-behaved and empathetic in dealing with our kind of calls. She listened to each and every question patiently and did have answers too. She told us:

It was a big relief for us. The lady on phone gave us an email ID where we were asked to send the soft copies of all of the reports we had. Once we sent the reports, we got an automated confirmation of the same. We also got a call the next day, as promised by the lady. She told me that the reports have been sent to the doctors on their panel. The doctors said, “Surgery will work fast and will have far-reaching positive effects. Though there are options like braces and cast, these do not guarantee that the condition will not relapse.” The lady said that the post-operative care that doctors provide is the best one and it has helped the children to get back on their feet in about a year. It did mean arranging for one month or so for surgery, but we definitely were relieved to find that the permanent cure was available.

We were given the list of the best hospital for pediatric hip surgery in India and all the doctors with their contact numbers fromthe Joint Replacement surgery hospital India group and sent the reports to. We stayed in touch with the lady and called her many times to clear our smallest of the doubts. She was very patient with us and answered all our queries satisfactorily. Of all the doctors’ names sent to us, we picked Dr. Sanjay Sarup Best Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon in India as we found his record quite impressive and he was well-qualified too. we wanted to start the process as soon as possible. So, we applied for the break from our work, and also arranged for the money required and decided to start the process about after six months. The lady agreed and asked us who will be coming with Ana. She told us that medical visa and other formalities will be their responsibility. Her positive attitude and the well-planned itinerary strengthened our confidence. It just looked like going to a pediatric orthopedic in our country; such was the comfort level we felt after talking to the coordinator.

My confidant and I chose to come with my daughter and in November 2014, we came down and met Dr. Sanjay Sarup from the Best Hospital for Pediatric Hip Surgery in India. He was a very benevolent and patient person and gave his full attention to our baby and her condition. He did have done a bit of homework about the case and told us many things about Hip Dysplasia. He showed us the cases, which were actually a few understandably, given the rarity of hip dysplasia in children. We asked him about the alternatives, he explained all of them, but he showed us the success rate of surgery and convinced us to go for the same instead of wasting time in braces and casts. He also told that brace or cast will definitely be required after surgery for about a month. The suggestion regarding the same was to follow after assessing the post-surgery condition of Ana.

We had several questions in mind regarding the surgery, such as:

The doctor did answer all our queries in great detail. He told us:

All these answered helped us know what to expect in the coming months.

Finally, the date of the surgery arrived. We were really amazed by the way attendants made our child comfortable. It was a short procedure that included giving general anesthesia. The surgery was done with an aim to realign the ball and socket joint followed by a period of traction and then of putting the girl in a cast called Spica cast. After completing the operation and the cast period of one hip joint, the same procedure was to be performed on the other hip joint too after three weeks. The overall period required a stay of about three months with regular following up visits scheduled monthlyOnce the operation was over, the doctor told us it was successful. He instructed us to learn the importance of cast and about its handling. We had many questions in mind, a few of those were:

His answers were quite assuring. He told us that:

The doctor explained to us all the necessary measures to be taken during the period of keeping Ana in the cast. It related to cleaning the area around the cast, the use of diapers, and others. The procedure performed on Ana was termed Closed Reduction. In this procedure, the doctor manipulates the joint and relocates the unstable ball of the hip joint back into the socket. As a part of pre-operation preparations, she was given traction before the date of surgery. This was done to relax the ligaments of the joints.

The closed reduction procedure involves steps such as:

This whole procedure took around three hours. This whole time the coordinator gave us very friendly treatment. The Joint Replacement surgery hospital India groupasked us from time to time if we had any problems. Ana was shifted to a very comfortable room after the surgery was over. She told us she felt better but wanted to come out of the cast. Her attendants were quite helpful and knew how to handle the child. They distracted her mind off the cast and engaged her in talks and toys. We were quite relieved to see their attitude and dedication towards keeping our child happy.

While all the procedures were going on in the hospital, we never had to worry about our hotel stays or transportation. The coordinator lady on the phone had given us a representative assigned to us to take care of our needs. All our calls for going to see Ana at the hospital were attended to swiftly. After the removal of the cast, the doctor personally came to see Ana and asked about her condition. He told us to get an x-ray done after a week to find the latest status. He explained the x-ray report to us and also guided us about the things to be done when we go back to Romania. He told us all about the effects of keeping Ana in the cast. A few problems like loss of muscle tone and inflexibility were also warned about. To combat this, Ana was guided to wiggle the toes as often as she can throughout the period in the cast.

The doctor put my girl into a hip abduction brace and advised me to use it for the coming few weeks. He explained that brace was needed to handle the transition into normalcy smoothly and to avoid any injury. The brace was to be worn almost all the time, barring the times of going to the loo. This was a difficult thing for us to do as Ana was very agile and wanted to be free as before. But with constant monitoring and counseling, she adjusted beautifully with the new arrangements.

Ana was kept under observation for a total of six weeks. After the completion of six weeks, she was asked to walk gently. It was accompanied by taking another Arthrogram to find the condition. The doctor did tell us that this x-ray will show remarkable change after the completion of about three months or so. He explained the healing process. He told us to keep Ana in the stroller most of the time during the healing process. It was required to set the joint nicely in its natural position. He also told us that since the child is in the growing stage, it will heal quickly, and within a few months, she will be walking and doing things like a normal friend of hers.Dr. Sanjay gave us our personal number and asked us to be in touch for any queries or doubts. He also drafted the post-treatment follow-up schedule, which we could carry on with our pediatric in Romania.

Finally, our time to return to our country came. We were escorted to the airport by the Joint Replacement surgery hospital Indiarepresentative, and the coordinator lady asked us about the feedback and suggestions. The doctor also suggested us to make him talk to the orthopedic in Romania on the first follow-up. We ensured that we followed the doctor’s prescription religiously and did whatever was expected from us. It was an affordable pediatric hip dysplasia surgery in India.

Ana has grown into an energetic sportsperson as we speak today. She has made us proud by participating in sports events at school. She loves running and is aiming to be a noted sprinter someday. All this beauty in our life is all due to the diligent working of Joint Replacement surgery hospital India- group of best hospitals and surgeons and expertise of Dr. Sanjay Sarup, who helped us achieve successful pediatric hip dysplasia surgery in India at the right time.