Baby Eliza needs urgent surgery as cerebrospinal fluid discharges

Anand Waghmare extracting the fluid from Eliza's head

The troubles for Anand Waghmare, 42, Service Engineer (Radio) with Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL), are far from over. On Monday, neurosurgeon Dr Shashank Joshi, attached to Cooper Hospital, informed this paper that baby Eliza (seven months old) will have to undergo an urgent replacement of the Ommaya catheter in her head, or a surgery at the earliest, as the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has started discharging. If untreated it could lead to infection. The response came after Dr Joshi went through the pictures sent by Anand on Monday.

The cerebrospinal fluid has begun discharging from baby Eliza's head, and may lead to infection if untreated, said neurosurgeon Dr Shashank Joshi

HC dismisses petitions
Anand was also dealt another blow on Monday afternoon, when a division bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed his petitions. According to Anand's lawyer, Rajeshwar Panchal, "Anand had filed two petitions: a) challenging his transfer order from Mumbai to Nagpur, and b) challenging a charge sheet against him for remaining absent from work. Both were dismissed. The court inquired if the petitioner submitted the undertaking of settlement and later passed the order." Panchal has now decided to move the Supreme Court and has also assured to bear all the costs.

The treatment
Talking about Eliza's condition, Dr Joshi said, "We have two options at this stage, either replace the existing Ommaya with a new one, or perform a surgery and insert a shunt to drain the fluid to the abdominal cavity, a method usually adopted to divert the CSF for anyone suffering from hydrocephalus. The area where the Ommaya reservoir is inserted should not be exposed as there is always a high chance of infection."

The existing Ommaya reservoir - an intraventricular catheter system used for removal of CFS - was done at Cooper in the third week of November 2018, and thereafter at regular intervals, the neurosurgeon and his team extracted the CSF from Eliza's brain, which also brought down the size of her head to 45 cms in circumference. However, Anand had to stop treatment as he had to resume duty at MRO, Nagpur, from December 17, 2018.

Surgical procedure
Dr Joshi further said, "As her condition is not good, we may have to go directly for a surgical procedure to do the shunting, but the risk of blockage of the tubes is always high, as high level of protein content in the CSF can block the inserted tube, which might call for emergency care."

"We have to evaluate Eliza before deciding on the line of treatment and all this will be possible only if Anand returns to Mumbai, or else he will have to get her treated by neurosurgeons in Nagpur," added Dr Joshi.

Also Read: Air India makes dad work without pay while baby Eliza needs urgent treatment

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