Treatment of Muktamoni on hold till after Eid vacation

Muktamoni, an 11-year-old girl suffering from a rare disease which resulted in a malignant growth on her right arm, was taken to the operation theater for the second round of her operation this morning at around 8:30, but only about 20% could be completed as she developed a fever. “The rest of the operation is on hold until the Eid vacation ends on 3rd September,” said Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) Burn and Plastic Surgery unit Coordinator Dr Samant Lal Sen. A five doctor board led by DMCH Dr Khan Abul Kalam Azad expects to restart the operation on September 4 or 5, depending on how much her health improves. The malformation due to be removed from Muktamoni’s right arm has rendered her bedridden for the last two years. She was first taken to doctors in Satkhira, then Khulna and Jessore, but received predominantly negative responses. When she was brought to DMCH, doctors sent her reports to Singapore, but they did not deliver a positive prognosis either. Later on, experts of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of DMCH took over her case and began treatment in July, and are now confident that she will recover. While visiting Muktamoni before taking her to the operation theater, DMCH Principle Dr Khan Abul Kalam Azad said: “Just like the successful treatment of Abul Bajandar, we hope to treat Muktamoni successfully as well. It might take her a longer period to get completely cured. Singapore failed and denied her, but doctors of the DMCH burn unit will successfully treat her, as they have proved they can.” Meanwhile, Dr Samanta Lal Sen said: “We successfully treated a few other patients who were suffering from this disease but they were brought to us at the earlier stages of this disease. Muktamoni was brought to the doctors far later than what would have been ideal, but she will be cured after the operations.”