A 17-year-old girl from Surat has undergone surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, a disorder in which an abnormal curvature of the spine appears in late childhood or adolescence, at Bharuch’s Kaka-Ba hospital, which is run by drug maker Cadila Pharmaceuticals’ CSR arm.

Dency Akbar, a resident of Amroli in Surat, was detected to be suffering from adolescent idiopathic scoliosis 4-5 years ago. Instead of growing straight, her spine had developed a side-to-side curvature and was turning into an ’S’ shape.

“Dency was in extreme pain because of the disorder for some time. Her deformity had also started to worsen, which is why we decided to perform the surgery on her spine. This technically demanding surgery and not the normal spine surgery, Hence, we used the  Neuromonitoring System for the surgery, a high-end instrument which helps/ guides the surgeon to avoid any damage to nerves,”  said Dr. Alpesh Patel Kaka-Ba Hospital.

“This was a technically demanding and rare surgery, but we accomplished it. The X-rays also show the difference in the shape of the spine, which is straight now,” he added.

The cost of the surgery was approximately Rs. 5 lakh, but Dency’s family did not have to pay any money, as the entire cost was covered under the central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.

While the surgery has changed Dency’s life, it is also a big achievement for Kaka-Ba Hospital. Kaka-BA hospital was established by the visionary founder of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Late Shri Indravadan A Modi, Kaka-Ba hospital has been instituted in the memory of his cousin who died of typhoid due to lack of medical facilities at Hansot, a small village in South Gujarat. He was determined to provide quality healthcare services at an affordable cost to the poor.

“Scoliosis surgeries are very risky and are generally done only in large hospitals in big cities by or under the close supervision of highly qualified super-specialists. That Kaka-Ba Hospital was able to perform the surgery successfully speaks volumes about the quality of our doctors and healthcare personnel, and the advanced technology and equipment available,” said Dr. Bharat Champaneria, Trustee of Indrashil Kaka-Ba and Kala-Budh Public Charitable Trust, which that runs the Kaka-Ba hospital.