Leh and Delhi are 1000 km away by road (representation)
New Delhi:
For nearly a month, 33-year-old Jikmet Wangdus and his brother-in-law have been traveling to Delhi International Airport daily to pick up a box stolen from Leh. Except that the package is not ordinary.
The box has seven small containers inside, each containing Mr. Wangdus’ wife’s precious breast milk for their newborn baby, who recently underwent a complex, life-saving surgery at a private hospital in the capital. national.
The boy was born from a cesarean operation on June 16 at Sonam Nurboo Memorial Hospital in Leh and Dorjey Palmo, 30, discovered her baby was unable to breastfeed when she tried to feed him.
“I was in Mysore when my family in Leh contacted me and my Guruji’s family members, who are doctors, suggested sending the baby immediately to Delhi or Chandigarh to a larger hospital. So, my wife’s brother, Jigmat Gyalpo, took a flight from Leh and I brought my child to Delhi on the morning of June 18th, ”Mr. Wangdus said.
Mr. Wangdus, who works as a principal at an educational institution in Mysore, also took a flight and arrived early in the morning the same day.
Leh and Delhi are 1,000 km away by road and a direct flight takes an hour and 15 minutes.
“I only took my child in my hands once when he was two days old. I didn’t touch it much because I had traveled from Karnataka and there was so much fear of COVID-19. My brother-in-law wore it, ”he told PTI.
Upon landing at Delhi airport, the baby was transported by his father and uncle to Max, Shalimar Bagh Hospital in an ambulance and was admitted to his NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), the reports said. hospital authorities.
At Max Hospital, Dr Harshwardhan, a senior consultant in the pediatric ward, diagnosed the baby with tracheoesophageal fistula with esophageal atresia, which he said is not very rare, but affects around “Three children in a thousand”.
Basically in this condition the infant’s feeding pipe and windpipe were connected and he was unable to feed himself. When the child was brought to our nursery, the baby also had a respiratory infection “so we had to stabilize him first,” he said.
“We performed the operation, which lasted about three hours, the next day and it was a complex operation, given that the baby was only four days old. But the operation was successful,” he said. declared.
The doctor said the baby was held in the NICU for three days and fed through the nose via a tube, when he suggested the father the need for breast milk.
Mr. Wangdus said his friends at Leh Airport, a very generous private airline that carried the box for free every day, and that “good-hearted passengers” helped the family stock up on milk daily. Leh’s mother in Delhi to strengthen the baby who was recovering from the surgery.
“My wife was unable to make it to Delhi due to the fear of coronavirus and so we had to deal with it that way,” he said.
“Since the end of June it’s been our routine, and every other day my brother-in-law and I go to Delhi T3 terminal and look forward to the box with our phone numbers on it,” he said. he declared.
“Today my brother-in-law picked it up, and my wife will continue to send the milk until our last day in Delhi,” the father said.
Each box contains seven containers, each with a capacity of 60ml, and each day the boxes are also sent back to Leh for filling the next day, Wangdus added.
“Two days ago my Guruji called my child Rigzin Wangchuk. Our plane tickets are booked for Friday, and we will all be heading home at last,” he said.
