Health
Rane , a Delhi-based public health professional, was one of the twenty persons of forty who finished the six-day trek, inspite of having suffered heavy and taxing treatment which had left his lungs compromised.
Updated : Nov 25, 2016, 07:55 AM IST
A young doctor, who was severely hit by Tuberculosis over the last two years, did not let the disease deter him from scaling new heights. Dr Saurabh Rane (24), had just barely recovered from borderline extremely drug-resistant (XDR) TB, when he decided to scale the Stok Kangri peak in Leh close to 20,000 feet in height. Barely a few medicines offer hope of cure when a person is struck with XDR-TB. Chances of survival reduce to mere twenty-five percent.
Rane , a Delhi-based public health professional, was one of the twenty persons of forty who finished the six-day trek, inspite of having suffered heavy and taxing treatment which had left his lungs compromised. Drug reactions to high-end drug Linezolid compromised with his hearing abilities and later caused a partial loss of vision.
"I had promised to my self in January, that I will do something insanely ridiculous if I manage to come out alive and survive TB. When you do something that is deemed impossible, you inspire," Rane said.
Two years back, Rane was struck by the TB bug during his internship period in Mumbai when he was completing his degree in Physiotherapy. "Insanely long work hours and stints in various departments of hospitals left me drained and tired. I started developing high fever. Water had accumulated along the lining of my lungs," he said.
He was put on one drug after another but the adamant bacteria refused to go away. Rane was on primary TB medication for six months after which he suffered a deadly relapse of the condition. "I developed Jaundice due to drug Rifampacin. I was then put on second-line drugs like Moxifloxacin, but the fever would not recede," he recounts.
Rane realized that the TB bug had become resistant to most drugs that are used to treat TB. "Only four-odd medicines of thirteen were not resistant to my bacteria, which means that they offered a hope of cure. Unfortunately, Linezolid started affecting my hearing and later eyesight. I developed Reverse Blind Spots or white patches in my field of vision. The drug had to be discontinued, after which my vision and hearing was gradually restored," Rane said.
For nearly two years, Rane consumed twenty anti-TB tablets a day and was jabbed with an injection every day for six months straight. Eventually, the water in the lungs thickened out and stayed there. "The thickening of lungs have now left them compromised. I love playing football, but I cannot exert beyond a point so I have had to give it up. I can do slow rhythmic exercises like jogging or trekking," he said.