Spina bifida campaign to get starry touch ……Malathy Iyer
When Stuti was born five years ago, doctors at the nursing home in Matunga (E) told her parents to keep a watch on the peashaped growth on her back. In three months, the growth ballooned to the extent that the child could only lie on her stomach. Doctors told us that she had a deformed spinal cord, and was paralysed waist-down. They cruelly told us that it would be best to let her go, said Stutis grandmother Chandanbai Vora.
Stuti was born with spina bifida, a congenital defect in which the brain and/or spinal cord fails to develop normally. It is a common birth defect in India, says paediatric surgeon Dr Santosh Karmarkar, affecting over eight children in every 1,000 births. In other words, there are 20,000 new cases every year.
On Tuesday, Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon will flag-off a campaign to highlight a little-known fact about spina bifidathat its preventable. The spinal cord is formed in the first month of pregnancy. If a pregnant woman takes folic acid tablets during this time or prior to conception, the spinal cord would be perfectly formed, said Dr Karmarkar. Polio is not as debilitating or widespread as spina bifida, yet there is a national campaign for polio prevention, but the government has done little for this disease.
Flagging off a public interest campaign starring Stuti and Tandon, the Spina Bifida Foundation plans to ask the union government to allow fortification of food products like biscuits, bread and flour with folic acid. In the West, such fortification has ensured that spina bifida is no longer a major worry, said Dr Karmarkar, who operated on Stuti when she was six months old.
Stuti underwent four corrective operationsthe hump on her back is slight. Due to a malformed spine, she can never stand or walk and will need another surgery to gain control on her bowel and bladder. But she attends school and, according to her mother Nutan, is an intelligent student.
Stuti was operated in time before brain damage set in, and she is doing well. But many children dont get the right attention. It is to prevent this neglect that we have launched this campaign, said the doctor.
CREATING AWARENESS: Nutan Vora with her five-year-old daughter Stuti, who will star in a public health campaign against spina bifida