Riya, like other three-year-olds, should have been reciting nursery rhymes with other tots at a kindergarten class. Instead, the girl who has a rare type of cancer sits quietly on a cot at Bhakti Vedanta Hospital, Mira Road after undergoing a surgery recently.

She got a new lease of life after doctors successfully removed a cancerous tumour weighing 2.5 kg.

As the tumour kept growing, all her internal organs were being compressed and it was extending up to her heart, said onco-surgeon Vishnu Agrawal, adding that the little girl’s stomach was bloating as a result.

Such a tumour is known as ‘Wilms' Tumor’ (see box) It was around a month ago that the family from Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh noticed that something was wrong with the child.

How it began

It was only a month ago that the family realised something was wrong, when they saw Riya’s abdomen had increased tremendously although she has stopped eating.

“For a year or so we noticed that Riya’s abdomen was bloating, but we ignored it.

However, in the last six months when she started complaining of pain in the stomach, we took her to the local doctor,” said her father Subhashchandra.

It was only last month that the girl’s condition worsened. “She had a severe breathing problem and started throwing up after which we took her to a local hospital,” said Subhashchandra.

“A CT scan revealed that Riya had a huge abdominal tumour and was advised surgery.”

She’s hale and hearty

Dr Agrawal said he was shocked to see a child of Riya’s age having a 15-cm-long tumour.

In Riya’s case, the tumour had extended towards the aorta, a large blood vessel that supplies blood to the heart. It was plodding through her organs the liver, pancreas, colon, aorta and diaphragm, inching towards the heart.

“It is shocking that the aorta, generally located on the left, had shifted to the right because of the tumour,” said Dr Agrawal. “It took a five-hour surgery to remove the tumour which was attached to the left kidney. The damaged kidney was also removed.”

Riya’s progress report, said the doctor, is quite satisfactory. The girl will soon undergo chemotherapy.

Innocent Smile is back

“We are thankful to doctors of Bhakti Vedanta who have given my daughter a new lease of life,” said the child’s mother Sunita. “It was painful to see her condition. After a long time, I have seen her smiling.”