Cultural transformation
It was a month back that an 18 year old girl, from a middle income household, who was seen by my colleague in the OPD was brought to me for second opinion. Unwell with profuse watery diarrhoea for many years, she was anaemic edematous, and quite sick. The parents seemed to be a disengaged from the condition she was in. A quick history and evaluation led us to think about a protein losing enteropathy and or malabsorption, leading to anaemia and hypoproteinaemia. In the conversation with my colleague, the girl told that her younger brother was quite sick and had underwent intestinal surgery at Lucknow. A possibility of a rare genetic disease crossed our mind, and we advised them admission for evaluation. The parents had not given this history at all. A colonoscopy done next day, confirmed our diagnosis, of “Polyposis Coli”, and I was now to talk to the father about the only option for the disease being colostomy and intestinal resection. As I started talking to him first question I ...