The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A big weight is off his chest

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Friday, Jun 08, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A big weight is off his chest

Sahana Charan

Abdul Rasheed. — Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Bangalore: For 33-year-old Abdul Rasheed from Belgaum, a wrong diagnosis almost cost him his life. But timely intervention at the SDS Tuberculosis and Rajiv Institute of Chest Diseases here ensured that the weight was off his chest. Literally.

For the last two years, Mr. Rasheed has been trudging from one hospital to the other seeking relief from intermittent fever, breathlessness and wheezing. He was diagnosed as an asthmatic and was treated at various private hospitals but his condition did not seem to improve.

Finally, he came to the Chest Diseases Institute last month and doctors there found that he did not have asthma at all but a huge tumour near his lungs.

"I went through hell in the last two years. When I started getting fever often and had severe breathlessness and wheezing, I went to a private hospital in Belgaum where I was diagnosed as having asthma and I was prescribed medicines for the condition. For a few days I would be all right, but then the symptoms would resurface again. I had no relief," said Mr. Rasheed.

His diagnosis summary from the KLE Society's Hospital in Belgaum where he was receiving treatment said that the patient had bronchial asthma and that he was also suffering from depression.

When his condition seemed to deteriorate his family took him to a private hospital in Miraj, Maharashtra, where the doctors suspected a lesion but could not do much to treat it.

"I was asked to go to Pune or Mumbai for treatment. Luckily, an acquaintance told me about this hospital (Chest Diseases Institute) and I am glad I came here," said Mr. Rasheed.

According to Shashidhar Buggi, Director of the Institute, the tumour had spread so much that it had engulfed the middle and lower lobes of the lungs and was pushing into one of the air passages connecting the windpipe to the lungs (intermediate bronchus).

"We have removed many such tumours at the institute but this case was a little complicated because it had spread to delicate areas in the respiratory region and we could not afford to damage any the air passages," said Dr. Buggi.

The surgery took around five hours and the tumour was 10 inches in diameter and weighing almost a kg. The lesson to learn is that if the symptoms do not respond to treatment, it cannot be asthma and the doctor should do further investigations," he added.

"For two years I spent thousands of rupees on medicines thinking I had asthma all the while. If doctors had correctly diagnosed my condition, my family and I would not have undergone so much agony," Mr. Rasheed said.

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