In the year 2008, my daughter Suhani Gautam, at the tender age of about 12 months started to have bouts of fever and had difficulty in passing stools. Her pediatrician Dr. Utpal Shah advised us to go for sonography & CT scan, which revealed a tumor in her liver. He referred us to pediatric surgeon Dr. Parthiv Shah, who in turn introduced us to Pediatric oncologist Dr. Deepa Trivedi of Vedanta Hospitals. Meanwhile, we came in contact with Dr. Hitesh Chavda, a senior liver surgeon of Sterling Hospitals through a common friend. The team of doctors diagnosed this condition of liver tumor as “HEPATOBLASTOMA”. We were tensed and confused as this was something very serious and unheard for all of us. As suggested by the doctors, this was a very rare case found only in one out of a million.

My childhood friend and a leading Plastic surgeon Dr. Shailendra Singh was throughout with us in this ordeal and was constantly in touch with all related Doctors. It was then decided that as the tumor was very big, it had to be treated first with medicine to reduce the size and then had to be removed surgically.

The doctors then decided to go for Liver surgery and on 4th November 2008, Dr. Hitesh Chavda, Dr. Parthiv Shah, Dr. Hiren Trivedi along with a team of specialist Doctors performed a seven hour long surgery (Hepatactomy & cholecystectomy) on Suhani. Almost more than 60% of her affected liver was removed. Post-surgery Suhani recovered well, but the battle was still to be won.

Thereafter, another three rounds of Chemotherapy were administered to prevent reoccurrence. In between the chemotherapy sessions, she regularly became neutropenic and immediately we had to rush her to the hospital every time, even during odd hours. Those were really testing times. Her span of treatment lasted for seven months and the 7th Floor of the Sterling Hospitals became our second home. After seven months of treatment on her last day in hospital, before discharge, Dr. Hitesh Chavda came to meet and greet her wearing a Pink Shirt and matching Tie as it is a belief that Girls like Pink color. During her entire stay in the hospital, she was a favorite of all the staff on the 7th floor. Blessing poured from all quarters on her final day at the hospital.

All her treatments stopped in March 2009. Initially, every three months, as a precautionary measure, Suhani had to undergo the prescribed tests. As on this day she has recovered fully and all her tests results are normal. By the grace of God, She is leading a very normal life and is now in Class VIII. She is a brilliant student, a darling of all her teachers and a trained Bharatanatyam Dancer. She has an artistic mind with a passion for baking Cakes.

Even after so many years, Dr. Hitesh Chavda does enquire about her wellbeing regularly.

This was a supra major surgery of such magnitude performed on such a small child for the first time in Gujarat. We were lucky to have such a good and efficient team of Doctors to treat Suhani.

We are grateful to all the Doctors who treated our daughter and thanks to Sterling Hospitals for their superb state of art medical facilities.