An eight year old boy went through dramatic surgery to reduce his disproportionately large hands. Mohammad Kaleem, who lives with his parents in a small village in Jharkhand, was born with a rare form of giantism, which saw his hands and arms grow until they weighed a colossal two stone between them.
Not only the boy, but even his family had to go through superstitious neighbours in their remote village who believed his large hands were the result of a curse, and branded him a 'devil's child'. “The school teachers said they could not take Kaleem. They said his huge hands will scare other kids. So he was denied admission,” said his father, Mohammad Shamim. As the boy grew older it however became increasingly difficult for him to even carry out his daily chores like dressing himself, eating, and taking a bath.
It was only when Kaleem's story made headlines in several international newspapers, that he finally received help from medical experts in south India. His condition was recognised as macrodactyly, or localised giantism. The family met with Dr Raja Sabapathy, a pioneering hand surgeon, who took on the challenge to help improve Kaleem's hands. Haleema Begum, Kaleem's mother said, “Dr Sabapathy gave us hope after seeing Kaleem. He was the first doctor who told us that some sort of remedy was possible to help our son.”
In a new documentary on the family, it is revealed that the family travels thousands of miles from their village to Tamil Nadu, to see the doctor and his team of expert surgeons at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore. It was one of the most complex cases as Dr Sabapathy was faced with finding a way to reduce the size of Kaleem's hands and fingers, without damaging any of his nerves. So that he would still be able to use them. “We decided to go for just one hand to begin with. This was our best way to assess the condition. At the same time, we did not want to affect the boy's mobility.”
An eight-hour surgery was performed to debulk his forearm and hand, and further surgeries to reduce the growth plates so that his hand and fingers would not grow any further.
