(Pushing) The surgical envelope
Updated On: 18 August, 2024 08:22 AM IST | Mumbai | Dr Mazda Turel
A man with a tumour and blurred vision insisted he wanted to see again because without sight,it’s no fun. Fair. Except, he was 96
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Babulal Ji was gradually losing vision. Everything was a fuzzier version of what it used to be. The entire day appeared to him as if it were always late evening. An MRI of the brain showed a pear-shaped tumour arising from the pituitary gland and pressing against the optic nerves. The only option available to restore his sight was surgery. The only caveat was that he was 96 years old; 96-and-a-half, to be precise.
He sat in my office with his granddaughter who was an anaesthetist. Thankfully. Because she comprehensively understood the complications of “putting someone under” at this age. His round head and pointed nose with cavernous nostrils were offset by a Dalai Lama smile that made him seem oblivious to the implications of life and death I was discussing with her. “The entire family has been dissuading him to have surgery at this age and the two doctors we consulted prior refused to operate on him. But, he is hell-bent on getting his vision back,” she told me, adding that he has two stents in his heart. “But apart from that, he is quite fit, walks with a stick and is mostly independent,” she added pulling out the list of medication he was on. When I examined him, he could barely count fingers close to his face.
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