Rare brain surgery performed by alumni of SMCH

October 16: In an era charaterised by scientific discoveries and technological leap, man seems to boast as the most powerful creature in this universe. This analysis, even as it stands witness to the enormity of man’s reach, is also a warning: that when man’s reach exceeds his grasp, it is time to pause and ponder over priorities. Some such moments of introspection brings forth the helplessness of this ‘powerful’ breed of Homo Sapiens, especially when it comes to diseases that seems to be fatal.

In such a rarest incident, a three month old baby developed a 10 centimetres brain tumour. When detected, the kith and kin of the baby lost all hopes and took refuge in prayers before God as their last resort. It was then that Dr Suchanda Bhattacharjee, Additional Professor of Neurosurgery at NIMS Hyderabad dared to perform a very rare brain surgery. Dr. Suchanda, an alumni of Silchar Medical College & Hospital (SMCH) knew that it was not a cake walk. She, however, undertook this arduous surgery as a challenge on Tuesday morning.

Today, when Dr. Suchanda started the surgery, the anxious parents of the baby outside the Operation Theater were passing through such a critical moment of their life, that they stood there still as a rock. The operation took some hours. When finally, Dr. Suchanda came out and informed that the operation is successful, there ware jubilation all thoughout the hospital. She had removed a 10 centimetres tumour from the brain of the baby. Dr. Suchanda informed that the baby was fine after the surgery.

In an exclusive telephonic conversation with way2barak, Dr. Suchanda said that it was a very risky surgery, but she was happy as everything went on well. As regards brain tumour, she said that a brain tumour is a lump in the brain which is caused when brain cells divide and grow in an uncontrolled way. What causes brain cells to start growing and dividing differently from healthy cells, forming a high grade (cancerous) or low grade (benign) tumour is yet a gray area.

Dr Suchanda did her MBBS from SMCH in 1997 and then did her super specialisation from Gangaram Hospital Delhi and NIMS Hyderabad. She served in British Columbia Children Hospital Vancouver Canada and Newcastle General Hospital Newscastle UK. Dr. Suchandra has also served in DanaDwek children’s hospital in TelAviv in 2009. She is the first women neurosurgeon from north east India.

On 11th October this year, she delivered a keynote lecture at the 46th annual conference of international society of Pediatric Neurosurgery in Tel Aviv Israel which was attended by more than 100 paediatric neurosurgeons from across the globe. She is a regular speaker in global Neurosurgery conferences related to children and also epilepsy. She also goes as an examiner in most medical colleges across the country.