Woman with bleeding disorder delivers baby at Cama hospital in Mumbai

The gynaecologists at the Cama and Albless Hospital recently delivered a baby whose mother suffered from a rare bleeding disorder. This was a high-risk pregnancy as the mother’s life was in danger.

Surekha Pawar, 33, suffered from Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) in which the blood platelet count of the patient is low. Since platelets help the blood to congeal, these patients suffer from bleeding incessantly after an injury. It causes bleeding from nose, ears, heavy bleeding during menstrual cycles, and purple bruises caused due to bleeding under skin. She has been on steroids since the age of 12 and had even got her spleen removed to stem the antibodies that fight platelets.

“Surekha came to us in the 8th month of pregnancy. She had pain in the abdomen. No hospital in her vicinity was ready to admit her as she suffered form ITP,” said Dr Rajshri Katke, professor and head of unit at Cama and Albless hospital. She was admitted in the ante-natal ward for a month after which doctors delivered a baby girl by doing a caesarean. “Two pints of platelets and four of frozen plasma were given to her during surgery,” said Katke.

However, after 15 days, Surekha started bleeding uncontrollably.
“The platelet count went down to 20,000. While the normal count is 1.5 lakh, below 60,000 is considered fatal,” said Katke. In co-ordination with Dr Alaka Deshpande, director of Centre of Excellence, Anti-Retroviral Therapy at JJ hospital, 20 pints of platelets and two pints of blood was pumped in Surekha’s body.