New Delhi: In an unusual limb-preservation procedure, doctors in Delhi created a “green corridor” to transport a cancer-affected portion of the thigh bone of an 11-year-old girl from Uzbekistan to another hospital for radiation treatment, before bringing it back for reconstruction.
Dr Aashish Chaudhry, managing director, Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, said, “Complex cancer care is not only about having every specialised facility under one roof, it is also about knowing how to bring the right expertise together for the patient. In this case, we created a green corridor to take the affected bone to Manipal Hospital for radiation therapy and bring it back to Aakash for reconstruction. This required meticulous planning, coordination and surgical expertise, with every step designed around preserving the child’s limb. The procedure was aimed at preserving the child’s own bone and the function of her limb, rather than discarding the cancer-affected segment after removal.
The radiation treatment took about 45 minutes, after which the treated bone was transported back to Aakash in about nine minutes. The bone’s dimensions had been shared in advance so that an appropriate container could be prepared for its transport. The girl, diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the left thigh, had already undergone eight cycles of chemotherapy in Uzbekistan before arriving at Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, Dwarka. Doctors removed the affected portion of her femur as part of a limb-preserving procedure. Since radiation therapy was not available at Aakash, the excised bone was transported by ambulance to Manipal Hospital, around 3km away in Dwarka, for radiation treatment. The ambulance covered the distance in about seven minutes through the green corridor. The child remained in the operation theatre throughout the process. The treatment strategy involved removing the cancer-affected bone, treating it with radiation to eliminate residual cancer cells, and then reusing the child’s own bone for reconstruction. The transport was coordinated by Puneet, the hospital’s security head, and Ajit Pal from the medical administration team, with the inter-hospital movement planned to minimise the time taken for the bone to reach the radiation facility and return to the operating theatre.