Bedridden 65-year-old woman finally gets to walk after 9 months of trauma

This is a tale of botched surgeries and hope. A 65-year-old Mumbaikar who had been bedridden for the past nine months due to unsuccessful knee surgeries can finally walk again.

Zubeda Deraiya with Dr Pradeep Bhosale

Zubeda Deraiya, underwent three knee surgeries that worsened her condition. But now, finally, she can walk after a critical knee joint replacement surgery at Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital.

On October 2, Jogeswari-resident Zubeda, who suffers from obesity, slipped in the bathroom of the Fatima Child Hospital and fractured her thigh (right femur).

"I slipped in the bathroom of Fatima hospital where I had gone to see my granddaughter who was suffering through phenomena." Zubeda said. Since then Zubeda family has visited three hospitals and spent almost Rs 7 lakh so that she can walk again. But to no avail.

First, she was taken to the Millat hospital at Jogeshwari where the doctor, after looking at the X-ray report, stated that it's was a normal swelling and prescribed some medicines. But after one week of unbearable pain, she was taken to another hospital, where her fracture was detected and they recommended an Open Reduction and Internal Fixation (ORIF) surgery to fix it.

On October 12, Zubeda underwent her first surgery at Andheri's Critical Care Hospital in which one plate and six screws were implanted in her right femur but after three days an infection was detected.

"We found out that the doctor who conducted the surgery was not so experienced and he carried out the operation for 9 hours. The post operation treatment was also handled very casually so I decided to change the doctor" alleged Ismail Deraiya(67), husband of Zubeda.

After her first operation, Ismail decided to change the doctor. On October 24, a second operation of Zubeda conducted in another hospital where a doctor first cleaned the accumulated pus which was a result of previous surgery by removing all the screw and plates and then implanted two screws in her knee. The doctor, who did the second surgery of Zubeda didn't assure the family of her knee repair, unfortunately the second operation also resulted in an infection.

After two unsuccessful surgeries, she was not ready to undergo any further operations. She said, "After my second operation I gave up, I was scared to go for another operation but after 5 months due to increasing risk of infection and unbearable pain in my knee, I went through another surgery at another hospital."

From the day she fell in the bathroom till her fourth operation, Zubeda was confined to bed.

The family then consulted many doctors but all of them said that an operation could be performed again but it would include many complications.

"We were recommended by the doctors at Kokilaben Hospital to go for knee-joint replacement surgery but I didn't want to take another risk of post-surgery complication as these issues had already degraded the my mother's health so I started reviewing the profile of arthritis and joint replacement surgeon on internet and then we contacted Dr Pradeep Bhosale from Nanavati hospital, said Haji Deraiya (36), son of Zubeda.

After getting an assurance from Dr. Bhosale, Zubeda decided to go for her fourth knee joint replacement surgery. He explained that the pre-planning part was the most important since, the case was extremely critical for three reasons - the patient was overweight, the patient had high blood pressure and arthritis and also because a part of her knee was damaged due to infection.

A bone grafting and total knee arthroplasty was also done in order to rectify poor bone quality. The operation cost Rs 5 lakh and the very next day after surgery Zubeda started walking with the help of a walker.

"My family didn't give up on me that's why I am able to stand today. I wish to recover as early as possible and start cooking for my children which I haven't done since past nine months," said Zubeda.