The beaming face of the 11-year-old girl from Yemen reflecting her intense happiness says it all. Her name is Hadia and she recently underwent a complicated and rare surgery at Poona Hospital and Research Centre, that has helped her to walk!

Hadia was suffering from a large vascular malformation of her foot. This involved her foot as well as the toes. What makes this condition worse is that the vascular malformation is congenital, that is present from birth and comes to notice only when it grows large.

Sharing details about Hadia’s condition, Dr. Abhishek Ghosh, Microvascular and Reconstructive surgeon who operated her told India Narrative: “She had shown to multiple doctors in Yemen, Egypt and India but without any relief. The lesion was growing and she could not put weight on her foot and was not able to walk properly. She was also operated upon earlier and sclerotherapy was also tried but the lesion came back.”

During his examination, Dr. Ghosh observed that the lesion was very extensive, involving more than half of the foot and also its sole. Also, he found that the second and third toe were involved completely while the great toe and midfoot also was suffering from damage.

“In many such cases partial or total forefoot amputation is done. But it was decided to take out the entire lesion with the second toe while preserving the other toes so that the patient could walk properly,” Dr. Ghosh said.

Hadia was taken for the operation and the entire vascular tumour was meticulously dissected from its attachment to the various arteries, veins, soft tissue and bony structure under magnification. This was followed by reconstruction of the foot with local flaps.

As the surgery was complicated it took five hours to complete it

Expressing his happiness, Hadia’s father, Abobakr, who is a taxi driver said he wished that he had met the Pune doctors earlier as it would have helped his daughter.

She was discharged on June 3 and continues to stay in Pune with her father and grandmother. Hadia will leave India once the sutures are removed and her initial phase of rehabilitation is over.