Chennai: Raghavan can now play on the beach. The two-year-old Sri Lankan refugee kid in the Mandapam camp near Rameswaram had not been permitted to go out and play with his two siblings and other friends as the parents feared he would catch a fatal infection because of a congenital problem in the
throat that caused oozing of fluid.
Brought to the Institute of Child Health at Egmore here, the kid underwent a complicated surgery on Tuesday for removing the disorder and is well on the road to recovery, according to the doctors attending on him. “We are relieved. This is the best thing that has happened to the family for a long time”, said his mother Ramjitha.
“I had a tough time preventing him from going out to play with other children due to the fear that he could contact some infection from the atmosphere and the sand. Now the doctors here tell us the kid is just fine. We are grateful to them, to this government hospital”, added her husband Rasalingam Premkumar, who ekes out a living working as a coolie in the fishing boats in and around Rameswaram. Hailing from Trincomalee in east Lanka, Prem had landed by a boat at Rameswaram along with wife and a little daughter. The couple got two sons after that and Raghavan is the youngest.
Explaining the procedure, Professor of Pediatric surgery at ICH, Dr. J. Krishnamohan said the sinus had extended deep behind the collarbone. “Since the sinus was close to the major blood vessels and vital organs, any further delay could have complicated things for the child because abscesses formation was a high probability,” said Dr. Krishnamohan, adding that the boy was now progressing well. The entire surgery and other procedures could cost at least a couple of lakhs of rupees but the ICH undertook the task of healing the Lankan refugee kid free of cost.
