Mumtaz with her baby and husband
Mumtaz Surya, 30, was four-and-a half years old when she was diagnosed with Thalassemia. Though she had been pale and tiny since birth, there were not many physicians in her village in Tamil Nadu who could find out that something was wrong with her.
It was her school teacher who brought the issue of her delayed development to her parents’ notice and advised them to see a doctor in Chennai. There she was diagnosed with thalassemia and for the first time she was given blood transfusion and some medicines.
The doctor asked her parents to bring her for blood transfusions every month. But they didn’t continue the treatment regularly. Lack of financial resources and awareness made them give up the treatment many times. Regular blood transfusion is a must for normal growth and development of a child suffering from thalassemia.
The delay in getting first blood transfusion had already led to an enlarged liver and spleen in Mumtaz. When Mumtaz’s immunity deteriorated and she started falling sick frequently, her parents tried various homeopathic and ayurvedic treatment for her. But nothing had helped.
To save her life, her father, a lawyer by profession, now started studying medicines available for Thalassemia and found a treatment in homeopathy. Mumtaz then started taking regular blood transfusions and to deal with its side-effects she relied on the therapy designed by her father.
“Every transfusion was complicated. As a child I was scared of needles and transfusing one unit of blood takes around 3 hours. My sisters used to entertain me during the transfusion. Post transfusion too, I used to face several side-effects—allergies, fever, jaundice, etc. I also suffered from cardiac arrest at the age of 18,” says Mumtaz.
Doctors who treated Mumtaz during her pregnancy say it was first of its kind case for them. “Infertility is a common problem in people suffering from thalassemia. Frequent blood transfusions lead to iron overload, which causes malfunctioning of various systems in the body, including endocrine and reproductive
But health problems didn’t deter Mumtaz from living life to the fullest. She may have missed many examinations at school but nothing could stop her from completing law. She practices law and deals with both civil as well as criminal cases.
A few years back, Mumtaz got married. Soon after marriage, Mumtaz conceived and she wanted to continue the pregnancy, knowing that it would be a tough journey. “I knew it could take my life as pregnancy is complicated when you have thalassemia. But I wanted to give it a try, I didn’t want my disease to stop me from living a normal life. I wanted to give birth to my child,” she says.
Mumtaz and Agaran
As expected, her pregnancy was a roller coaster ride. She needed to travel from Tiruppattur to Bangalore, a four hour drive, every 20 days for blood transfusions .
But as they say, where there is a will, there is a way. In July, last year, Mumtaz gave birth to a healthy baby boy, she named him Agaran.
Doctors who treated Mumtaz during her pregnancy say it was first of its kind case for them. “Infertility is a common problem in people suffering from thalassemia. Frequent blood transfusions lead to iron overload, which causes malfunctioning of various systems in the body, including endocrine and reproductive.
“The main challenge was to maintain her haemoglobin above 9 or 10 as low haemoglobin could affect the growth of the fetus. At the time of birth also, we had to ensure adequate oxygen in the blood. Mumtaz’s zeal to live and give birth to this child kept us going,” says Dr Sharat Damodar, senior consultant haematologist, Narayana Health City, Bangalore.
Mumtaz now looks forward to a new life with her baby. “When I was a kid, my sisters helped me bear the pain of blood transfusions and kept me going. Now, I have my baby in my lap every time I go for transfusions and I forget every pain,” she says.