Afsheen Gul: How a kind Indian doctor saved a Pakistani teen’s life

Pakistaner teenager Afsheen Gul suffered from a rare condition that kept her neck at 90 levels. She struggled to reach the right treatment until her case has been brought to a doctor within India. BBC Urdu’s Riaz Sohail reports on the teen’s journey to getting life-saving treatment in Delhi.

What is a friend?

For most children, it might be their classmates in school or neighbours they grew up with who became their particular friends. Sometimes, it could their favourite stuffed toy or perhaps even a pet.

But for 13-year-old Afsheen Gul from Pakistan’s Sindh province, life had been a little different. The youngest of seven siblings, she in no way went to school or even played with her close friends.

That’s since an accident – the girl fell from the girl sister’s arm whenever she was just 10 months outdated – left her neck bent with 90 degrees. The girl parents took her to the doctor which gave her several medicines and put a belt around her neck for assistance, but her situation only worsened.

“She could not walk, eat or speak. She used to just lie on the ground and we used to help the girl with everything, ” Afsheen’s mother Jamilan Bibi recalls, including that they could not pay for further treatment.

Afsheen also is suffering from cerebral palsy : she learned to walk when she was six, in order to speak when she was eight — which further pressed her behind various other children her age.

For 12 yrs, Afsheen spent the girl life confined to her house in Mithi, nearly 300km (186 miles) from Karachi city, in this unpleasant condition.

However , the girl life changed in March when an Native indian doctor successfully managed upon her curved neck. Dr Rajagopalan Krishnan, a specialist of complex spinal surgeries at the Apollo Medical center in Delhi, offered to do Afsheen’s surgery free of charge.

Four a few months on, Afsheen may finally walk, speak and eat on her behalf own. The injuries of her surgical treatment have healed. Doctor Krishnan checks on her via Skype every week.

“She is weak – and it is still unable to go to school – but the doctor says which will get better with time, inch Afsheen’s brother Yaqoob Kumbar says.

“We are so joyful – the doctor ended up saving my sister’s lifestyle. For us he is a good angel, ” Mister Kumbar says.

Afsheen is suffering from atlanto-axial rotatory dislocation, a rotation of the spine which causes neck impairment. “This is probably the first case of its kind in the world, ” Dr Krishnan said.

Her condition gained worldwide attention within 2017, when an article on a news web site spotlighted her story.

Prominent Pakistani actor Ahsan Khan shared a photo associated with Afsheen on Fb, urging people to help, while Afsheen’s mother was invited to some popular morning show hosted by Sanam Baloch. An online fundraiser was also created by an organiser in the US to help her family afford surgery.

In Nov 2017, Naz Baloch, an MP in the ruling Pakistan Someones Party (PPP), messaged that the Sindh authorities would provide complete therapy to Afsheen.

She was hospitalised in Agha Khan University Hospital : Pakistan’s biggest private hospital – within Karachi in Feb 2018, where specialists said they would operate on her, but gave her a “50% chance of survival”, Mister Kumbar says.

Afsheen’s parents requested the doctors pertaining to time to think over the top of it and took her home. “But we all got busy with my sister’s wedding ceremony and her treatment could not be completed, ” her sibling says.

Mr Kumbar adds that will after the wedding, your family contacted government officials to resume Afsheen’s treatment but had been allegedly disappointed if they did not receive an optimistic response.

Ms Baloch, however , says she tried her best to arrange Afsheen’s treatment, including getting in touch with NGOs abroad, and only withdrew when worldwide NGOs stepped into help the family.

Afsheen was back in the information in 2019 every time a British journalist, Alexandria Thomas, reported on her condition and her family’s financial position.

Ms Thomas furthermore put the family touching Dr Krishnan within Delhi, who spoke to Mr Kumbar and told your pet that he was ready to help Afsheen.

The family applied for visa upon medical grounds plus arrived in India in November last year. An independent childcare organisation, Darul Sukoon, helped associated with the process.

It was an extremely hard time for Afsheen plus her family, Mister Kumbar recalls: “Dr Krishnan told all of us that her coronary heart or lungs might stop beating during the operation. ”

There have been also financial difficulties – Afsheen’s loved ones did not have the money to pay for her treatment. So they relied on the on the web fundraiser to meet the particular expenses.

Yet Dr Krishnan gave the family hope. Mr Kumbar says he had been in contact with a number of doctors during this period, but no one as “sensitive and kind ” as him.

“Due to their efforts and guidance the operation has been successful, ” he adds.

Afsheen underwent two major surgeries before the main neck surgery, that was followed by another major operation.

The primary surgery took place in February. Dr Krishan told the BBC that he and his team attached Afsheen’s head to her spinal cord throughout a six-hour operation. The particular skull was after that attached to the cervical spine using a stay and screws to maintain the neck straight.

After the surgery was effective, Dr Krishnan informed reporters that Afsheen would not have resided for long without treatment.

But she actually is now “smiling plus talking”, Mr Kumbar said in July when he posted a picture of his smiling sister on Facebook a day prior to Eid.

There are some problems though – she has still slower than other children, a lot of whom often judge her for that, her brother says.

“But that will improve with time. For now, We are just happy the sister is well and happy. ”