My wife, Mrs.S A, underwent the surgery for the excision of a large carotid body tumor on the left side of the neck on 2nd June, 2015 at your hospital. The surgery was performed meticulously by Dr.(Col.) Kumud Rai and his team. Post surgery complications such as inability to swallow and difficulty in speech followed. She was put indefinitely on Ryle’s tube for feeding as the injury to the nerves had caused Dysphagia. Dr.(Col.) Kumud Rai, in consultation with the Dysphagia therapist, Dr. Hitesh Gupta, put her on Dysphagia management therapy. It was our only hope. I inquired about hospitals and clinics where this facility existed but to my utter surprise I could not find any place in the whole of North India. This facility exists only in Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket, which has a vital STIM machine with a certified Dysphagia specialist, Dr. Hitesh Gupta, trained to use the same. The thought at one stage that she would not be able to swallow ever again gave shudders to us. Kudos to the dedicated team of Dysphagia therapists, led by Dr. Hitesh Gupta, which took a lot of pain in carrying out the therapy, day by day, till on 6th August, the Ryle’s tube was finally removed. I sincerely thanks to Dr.(Col.) Kumud Rai who took keen interest in the therapy. He followed up its progress and is still following the case. A big thanks to you, Sir. We still have some way to go and our next evaluation with E.N.T specialist, in consultation with Dr. (Col.) Kumud Rai and Dr. Hitesh Gupta is in mid-September. Max Super Specialty Hospital at Saket can truly boast of an extremely efficient and dedicated dysphagia team. However, not many people seem to be aware of Dysphagia treatment available here. This should be propagated so that more people benefit from it. The various media such as TV channels, radio FM, newspapers, magazines, placards and posters should be made use of, so that a lot of unaware but needy and psychologically wrecked people can SMILE ONCE AGAIN.
