CHENNAI: For the most part of his 83-odd years Rengasamy Pillai kept himself active. A farmer from the village of Thirumanancheri, he still used his bicycle to go to the fields every day up until two months ago. When he first complained of shortness of breath and an increasing chest pain when he ate, his wife and son didn’t take him too seriously — they attributed it to his age. After a general practitioner was unable to provide relief, it was a visit to the Thanjavur Medical College and Hospital that revealed the grim problem. “There was a sizeable malignant tumour in his oesophagus, just above his stomach,” said Dr G Manoharan, Professor of Surgical Gastroenterology at the Madras Medical College.Though the doctors who diagnosed him in Thanjavur referred him to MMC for radiation therapy to minimise his cancer, doctors here had a bolder plan, “We had never performed such a complicated surgery on anyone over 80 before. At that age there is a huge risk of mortality when we take them to the operating table,” said the doctor, but added, “As all his other vitals and organs were good we decided to go ahead with it.” With no history of diabetes, heart trouble or high blood pressure, he was as ready as he could be for surgery.The three-hour surgery was a gruelling one with the surgeons having to perform a trans-hiatal oesophagectomy with gastric pull-up. After the surgery, not only did his pain disappear, his general state of mind saw a lot of improvement. Two weeks after the surgery, Rengasamy looks as young as ever and is raring to get back to his cycle. What should have cost him an unaffordable Rs 2 lakh or more was rendered free through the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Life Insurance Scheme.
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