Chennai:
It's been two years since 8-year-old Mupenzi Assumani Ephrem properly saw what Christmas looked like at home. Now, after two near-emergency brain surgeries at Fortis Malar Hospital, the boy who had been rendered blind is excited at flying home to Congo to be with his family for Christmas. He nods his head, when asked if he wanted to go home for the holidays.
The normally bright, stocky boy had lost sight in his right eye and had almost lost vision in his left eye too, before doctors found what was wrong. "He was diagnosed with a pituitary macro adenoma, after visiting hospitals in the UK and France," said Dr Venkateswara Prasanna, Consultant-Neuro Surgeon at the hospital.
The boy who had complained of a continuous headache for two years, had a 'cricket-ball sized' tumour in his skull, that had damaged his optic nerves, thanks to its weight. "European doctors had given up on him and chose not to do the expensive surgery," he added.
The first surgery was done endoscopically through his nose, where the size of the tumour was reduced and the part accessible was removed. Ten days later, the surgery began, "We cut into his skull and managed to extract the rest of the tumour," said the doctor. The results were instant, "I could see," said the boy with a smile, when asked how he was feeling. The possibility of his regaining vision in the right eye remains moot, "but not impossible". Even the problem of hormone imbalance, was corrected.
Despite the risk of more tumours developing, Mupenzi is upbeat and cannot stop smiling before he departed - that is the joy that Christmas and family bring to a child, especially for one who can see it again.