Though born healthy, hailing from Barkuriha village in Assam Garima Kalita’s life took a turn at the age of 1 year 10 months. As the case was a complex one the doctors from Guwahati referred the patient to the Head and Neck Cancer Department at Narayana Health City, Bengaluru. There, as part of the treatment, the child underwent multiple surgeries in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. Today, she is not only disease-free she looks near normal, back home with a new ray of hope and probably a fresh life ahead. The multi-disciplinary team at Narayana Health City, Bengaluru not only successfully treated Garima Kalita (11) from a rare head and neck cancer that she was suffering from, they even reconstructed a section of her face which she had lost to cancer and gave her a new lease of life.
“Head and neck cancer is very rare among children and fibromyxoid sarcoma of the right maxilla is an even rarer condition. In Garima’s case, she had rare cancer, known to be recurrent and locally aggressive but also making a significant dent in her physical appearance. With the help of our expert multi-disciplinary team and expertise, we have been able to treat her and give her a near-normal look and improve her quality of life. The success of Garima’s story can be attributed to the close cooperation and teamwork of the Surgical Oncology, Rehabilitative and prosthetic team, Radiation Oncology, Neurosurgical and Thoracic Oncology teams at NHCB”, said Dr Vijay Pillai, Consultant and chief, Head & Neck Surgical Oncology, NHCB.
