Bengaluru: 8-month-old Pak boy donates bone marrow to save sister

Bengaluru, Dec 19: Eight-month-old Rayan from Pakistan is perhaps the youngest bone marrow donor in India. The infant saved his elder sister Zeenia's life. The girl who's almost two-and-half years old was suffering from Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare disease. Her bone marrow produced some abnormal cells, which would eat away the normal marrow cells. For Zeenia, the only cure was a bone marrow transplant.

It's been two months since Zeenia underwent a bone marrow transplant at Narayana Hrudayalaya and both the kids are doing well, say doctors. The family will soon be returning to Sahiwal, Pakistan.

Till the first 11 months, Zeenia showed normal growth. But soon she started getting high and persistent fever and antibiotics didn't help. On screening, she was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow ailment, manifested through high fever, low blood cell counts and liver and spleen enlargements, a condition medically considered life threatening. Zeenia was also diagnosed with partial albinism, which doctors said she had since birth.

The girl's condition came as a rude shock for her parents who were told by doctors in Pakistan that she was beyond cure. "Back home, diseases like Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis are mired in misconceptions. There is a perception that it's not curable. In fact, we had given up all hope till we heard about similar cases being taken up at Narayana Health City. We are glad that we could make this trip to India and are grateful to the entire team of doctors who saved our daughter's life," said Zia Ulla, Zeenia's father.

The child's condition had worsened due to recurring infection coupled with a long travel from Pakistan and she had to be first stabilised, before she could undergo the transplant. Her 8-month-old brother, Rayan turned out to be a complete Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match for her. However, Rayan was just an infant and haematologists at Narayana Health had a tough task at hand.

"The case was very challenging from the donor's perspective; Rayan was barely 8 months old. An infant's bones are very soft and supple and extracting the stipulated dosage was a real challenge. It's risky to extract more than 15 to 20ml per kg of body weight at one go from an infant like Rayan. Therefore, we had to do in two steps with a time gap of six weeks between the two extractions," said Dr Sunil Bhat, senior consultant, head of pediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant, Narayana Hrudayalaya.

"By using small marrow extraction needles, our team of anaesthetists could successfully extract enough bone marrow to cure Zeenia. Rayan who was put on iron supplements and adequate nutrition to make up for the marrow loss, has not only saved his sister's life but also become the youngest marrow donor in our country," said Dr Bhat.

"Once we return to Pakistan, we plan to start an online page and share our story with the people there. We want to create awareness about this illness and its possible treatment," said Zia Ulla.

HAPPY TO HELP

We are glad that we are being able to help a large number of patients from Pakistan as well as other countries by offering quality treatment. Just over a decade ago, two and half-year-old Noor Fatima from Lahore got cured of a congenital heart disorder here. And now it's little Zeenia. Our bone marrow transplant unit has completed more than 650 stem cell transplants till date

Dr Sharat Damodar | senior consultant haematologist and clinical director at Narayana Health City