There are many medical conditions for which there may not be any cure. Still, the symptoms can be controlled along with improvement in quality of life, by appropriate & timely medical intervention.
Recently in a similar instance, a 15 years old boy from Sundergarh came to the JP Emergency department after being referred from a govt hospital.
This patient has been suffering from acute shortness of breath (SOB), high fever & cough for the last 4-5 days. This patient had a history of gradual progressive motor weakness starting from the lower limbs upward. This patient was admitted to JP Critical Care Department as the condition of the patient was critical. After initial assessment & clinical investigations by Dr. Arun Kumar Sahu (Consultant Critical Care) and, this patient was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – an inherited disorder of progressive muscular weakness, typically in boys, along with Respiratory Acidosis – a condition that occurs when the lungs cannot remove all of the carbon dioxides the body produces. This causes body fluids, especially the blood, to become too acidic. Other treating consultants from the Critical Care Team involved were Senior Consultants Critical Care – Dr. Prabir Kumar Roy & Dr. Sumona Paul along with Dr. Abhisek Nanda from the (Department of Neuroscience).
The JP team took this case as a challenge and started treatment by immediately shifting the patient to ICU. Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) support, which is the delivery of assisted mechanical ventilation to the lungs, was employed along with oral medications (antibiotics, analgesics etc) & electrolyte replacement.
The patient gradually started responding to the treatment, under thorough observations of the JP Critical Care Team and was finally discharged under conscious-oriented conditions. However, the patient was advised to home BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) with regular follow-up.
JP Critical Care Department is the most well-equipped department in this region to undertake any emergency cases, with 24×7 availability of specialist consultants. Many lives have been saved here.
