After surgery, Kashmiri student back on his feet

BENGALURU: Struggling to walk normally and unable to get the desired treatment in his native state, Tufail Arif Basha, 25, turned to Bengaluru for medical aid. Admitted to a city hospital on Sunday, the engineering student underwent a successful reconstruction surgery.
Tufail, from Jammu and Kahsmir, was suffering from the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects the connective tissues supporting the skin, bones, blood vessels and many other organs and tissues, said a press note from Hosmat hospital.
Defects in connective tissues cause the symptoms of the syndrome, which vary from loose joints to life-threatening complications. "Tufail came to us as he was not able to walk normally, because the big toe of his right foot was severely bent inwards. This was causing him severe pain and he could barely manage to go to college," the release read.
Chief of orthopaedics, Dr Thomas Chandy, and senior orthopaedician, Dr Ravi Shankar, operated on him. "We did a corrective and reconstructive surgery, where the deformity of big toe was corrected and it was straightened using a K-wire, a pin which will be removed after six weeks," Chandy said.
K-wire is used by orthopaedicians to hold bone fragments together or to provide an anchor for skeletal traction.