2-year-old Pakistani child undergoes bone marrow transplant in Bengaluru

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Two-year-old Amyra Sikandar Khan from Pakistan has successfully undergone bone marrow transplant (BMT) in a city hospital.

Daughter of cricket commentator Sikandar Bakht hailing from Karachi, she was recently cured from Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 (MPS I) with the help of a BMT at Narayana Health.

"Mucopolysaccharidosis is a rare condition that has the potential to impact the functioning of multiple organs including eyes and brain," the healthcare chain's Chairman and Founder Devi Shetty told reporters on Wednesday.

Amyra (aged 2.6 years) was saved using the bone marrow of her father, who was the donor, doctors said.

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Dr Sunil Bhat who treated the child said mucopolysaccharidosis is a condition wherein there is an enzyme missing in the body.

Because of the deficiency of that enzyme, the patient develops "a lot of changes in the body, the liver and spleen becomes big, bones change".
Most of these children with such rare conditions become handicapped by the age of 19, and most of them die in the second decade of their life. So, bone marrow transplant is one of the treatment options for this, he explained.

¿The girl did not have any siblings and we looked for an unrelated donor but that was also not available. That's why we chose to use one of the parents as donor, which is known as half-matched donor transplant,¿ Dr Bhat said.
After four months of the transplant, the doctors found her doing well and the enzymes have started to normalise.

The child's mother Sadaf said she had no idea about the disorder and approached Dr Bhat after doing a lot of research. She added that the doctors and the para-medical team were quite approachable.

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