A mother’s skin saved the life of her child who suffered critical burns three months ago.
Doctors who treated the girl said the surgery was “rare” in Kolkata for two reasons — the age of the child, who is just two years and nine months old, and a donor’s skin was grafted on her.
A skin graft is a patch of skin that is removed by surgery from one area of the
body and transplanted, or attached, to another area. It is needed for a variety of reasons, including burns and large wounds.
While skin is usually grafted from a person’s own body, using a donor’s skin is rare, said doctors.
The girl, who lives with her parents in Barasat in North 24-Parganas, suffered a freak accident on May 7. Her house hosted a puja and piping hot daal, part of the prasad, had been kept in a giant bowl.
“She was playing in the same room and somehow slipped into the bowl,” said her father Nityagopal Mondal, who works with a paramilitary force. The girl was taken to a local hospital, which referred her to CMRI Hospital in Ekbalpore.
She suffered 40 per cent burns. Her chest wall, abdomen, back and hands were severely damaged, said an official of the hospital.
“After two weeks, we realised that skin was not healing by itself. Wounds in raw areas developed infection and the skin started coming off. Such a patient needs skin grafting. But it was impossible to take skin from her own body for grafting. It would have aggravated her illness,” said Anupam Golash, senior consultant, plastic and reconstructive surgery, at CMRI, who did the skin transplant.
In such cases, skin is usually taken from someone else, either from a skin bank or from some other donor.
“Hospitals that treat many burns patients, like AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, have a skin bank. But we (at CMRI) don’t have that infrastructure,” said Golash.
The girl’s mother came forward to donate her skin. The surgery happened two weeks from the date of admission.
Around 900sq cm of skin was taken from the mother’s thigh and transplanted on the affected parts of the daughter’s body.
“The body is gradually starting to accept the skin. Her skin has healed to the extent that we decided to discharge her,” Golash said.
The child was discharged on July 7. Twice a week now, she has to visit the hospital for check-up.
“She is moving and talking now. Her mother is also doing alright,” said the father.
“The main challenge in such a case is the body’s acceptance of a foreign skin. Initially, foreign skin is grafted onto the body. But that is temporary. The wound dries and infections get healed. But since it is a foreign skin, after a couple of months, some of it is expected to be rejected
by the host body. But by then, the host body would have healed significantly,” Golash said.
Ruchi Golash, a paediatrician at CMRI who treated the girl, said the girl showed tremendous fighting spirit. “She survived at least four episodes of sepsis,” she said.