Patient thanks Doc for her miracle cure
Published: April 4, 2007
A ROYAL Free Hospital patient is making a good recovery after treatment for an injury other hospitals considered too risky to operate on.
Meyrem Gurler, 45, suffered an abdominal hernia which occupied a space from her stomach to just below her knee.
Several hospitals would not carry out repair surgery because the risk of complications was considered too high.
Ms Gurler said: “My life had come to a standstill. I couldn’t do the most basic tasks such as dressing myself. Walking the shortest of distances was a problem and I developed a hunchback because of the weight I was carrying. I am looking forward to getting into normal clothes again.
“The shape of my body was really odd because of the hernia and I used to be conscious of people staring. I felt very low.”
Ms Gurler from Enfield suffered years of pain and discomfort after developing the hernia following surgery to have her appendix removed in 1998.
A hernia occurs when an internal part of the body such as an organ, pushes through a weakness in the muscle or surrounding tissue wall.
When she was eventually referred to the Royal Free, consultant Gyan Jain asked personally to see her.
He said: “It was the biggest hernia I have ever seen. It caused the patient problems with her mobility and posture and the skin over the hernia kept breaking and getting infected.
She said she was living a miserable existence and pleaded with me to help her. I was moved by her plight.”
The biggest risk of repair surgery on such a large hernia is when you push it back in, it causes the diaphragm to move upwards and so the patient has difficulty breathing.
“There is also risk of wound infection, deep vein thrombosis and in the worst cases, death.
Mr Jain said: “I believed that despite the risks, it was better to operate now rather than waiting until an emergency developed.
“One day the skin over the hernia would break completely and the bowel could come out through the wound, then the patient would need emergency surgery.”
Mr Jain operated on Mrs Gurler for fours hours during which he removed five kilograms of the hernia sac and abdominal fat.
He said: “I was in Saudi Arabia for 16 years and did a lot of challenging hernia surgery there so this case was not that unusual for me but it was still very interesting.”
Ms Gurler said: “I am amazed at what Mr Jain has done and I only wish I had met him sooner. He has been wonderful.”
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