Gurugram, April 4 : An elderly woman from Jammu, suffering from multiple myeloma for the past 10 years, was successfully treated at a private hospital here.
Following the transplant, 62-year-old Raj Kapahi is now back to her normal life and is living a healthy life.
As per the doctors, multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that arises from plasma cells. When these cells start dividing uncontrollably and spread abnormally in the body, it leads to the disease. Multiple Myeloma can be present with various symptoms such as unexplained renal failure while other common symptoms include backache with broken bones as well as long-term anaemia, fatigue and infections in the urine.
Rahul Bhargava, Director, Institute of Blood Disorders at Fortis Hospital, Gurugram, and his team performed an autologous bone marrow transplant where they used the woman’s own cells for transplant, thereby reducing the chances of rejection and infections.
“Few years ago, myeloma was a non-curable disorder but with the advancements in newer therapies and new drugs coming into the market, it is promising an operational cure and control in the long term. The survival is further increased by carrying out the bone marrow transplant in such patients, which is not so expensive these days and requires a patient to stay for nearly 10 days at a hospital.
In this case, when the patient approached us, she was entirely dependent on others for her basic needs. But within six months after the treatment, she is back on her legs and is carrying on with her normal life,” said Bhargava.
“If multiple myeloma is diagnosed at an early stage, the survival is longer. Medications are no longer expensive as well as does not cause hair loss, diarrhoea and nausea. Myeloma treatment medications are now slowly moving from intravenous to subcutaneous like a jab for an insulin injection and along with oral medications which are making life very easy for patients to live with myeloma,” he added.
After undergoing the surgery, Kapahi said: “Life with myeloma was very difficult, but now I feel I have got my life back and now I will live a normal life without any complications related to my disease. I am very thankful to Rahul Bhargava and his team who treated me miraculously. I can’t thank them enough for what they did for me and given me a new life.”(IANS)
