11-yr-old boy with blood cancer treated for TB for a month: Docs

IN JANUARY this year, 11-yearold Kashif and nine-year-old Ilma, while playing outside their small house in Noorpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, noticed a swelling on their six-year-old brother Talha’s neck.

“We noticed the swelling. But we thought he had hurt himself,” Kashif said.

In the next two weeks, the swelling kept growing. The family then travelled to Moradabad, where the six-year-old was treated for tuberculosis for a month.

The treatment remained infective and the swelling kept growing. A month later, at a government hospital in Chandigarh, it was found that Talha was misdiagnosed and was, in fact, suffering from blood cancer.

However, the family, for the next 45 days, had to make at least five visits to the hospital — for doctors in Chandigarh to begin treatment. “They gave medicines. But that did not make anything better. Instead, the condition worsened and he started complaining of severe bone pain. He also started complaining of difficulty breathing. I knew something had gone wrong,” said Haseena, Talha’s grandmother.

The family had to face another shock as delay in beginning treatment resulted in the cancer spreading from the neck to the bone marrow. On March 16, the grandmother rushed him to Apollo hospital in Delhi for treatment and when he was brought, his total leukocyte count (TLC) was 1.5 lakh/cumm — almost ten times more than normal levels.

“The doctor said he had less than 30 days if treatment does not begin immediately. They said the cancer had spread to other parts. We did not have money for treatment,” said Talha’s father Mohammed Rashid, a manual labourer.

The treatment was then funded by an NGO and money from the chief minister’s relief fund. Now, almost a year later, fighting all odds, the boy is nearing the “end of his treatment” and his doctor says his response to the treatment is “excellent”.

“In most cases where there is neck node or undiagnosed illness, it is due to tuberculosis. This has become very common. If TB treatment continued a little longer, the child would have died of cancer. This is a case which clearly demonstrates that doctors should not give empirical treatment. We should diagnose the underlying illness correctly. If the diagnosis is done early, childhood cancer is treatable. There is good treatment available. Despite the misdiagnosis and unfortunate circumstances, the boy has responded excellently,” said Dr Manas Kalra, consultant pediatric oncologist hematologist at Apollo hospital.

Doctors said Talha is undergoing maintenance chemotherapy and is supposed to undergo follow-up treatment for the next five years.

Talha now harbours bigger dreams. “I want to fly an airplane someday. I hope my fight against cancer is complete soon,” said the six-year-old.

Six-year-old Talha with his family