Egypt4u

Did anyone catch the programme on Channel 5 last night The boy with the giant hands? I was spellbound, moved to tears at the boy's plight, the anguish of his parents and the kindness oof the doctors who were treating him free of change.

I was almost moved to tears of anger at the Uncle believe it or not of the poor boy who was telling the villagers that the lad was a Devil's Child and should be banished or worse.

I can't say I enjoyed it, but I have it recorded and I shall watch it again, might make me appreciate my good fortune a bit more.

Superstition and religion, the two curses of humanity.

Mohamed Kaleem was an 8yr old boy whose hands were well over a foot long and weighed 5.5lbs each. In the area in which he lives in India there are very few medical facilities. Although the parents took him to see the doctor, he advised amputating both hands, which his mother refused to do.

Eventually somehow the World's press got hold of his case and an Indian doctor specialising in microsurgery surgery offered to treat the boy free of charge as part of his own charitable responsibilities. The condition is rare, but treatment when the child is very young is usually successful and results in the youngster having a normal life. He had not seen a child left so long that the hands were so immense.

The first part of his treatment was to get rid of all the internal parasites of one kind or another then highly nutritious food to get him into better physical condition to endure many hours of surgery. The operations themselves were fascinating - the main goal being to remove the growth plates to prevent any further increase in size and to enable useful movement.

I was very impressed by the respect that the doctor showed to all the members of this very poor family, keeping them fully informed and allowing access to their son at all times - except when he was actually in the operating theatre.

The surgery was most interesting and successful. He still has large hands but I guess the fingers have been shortened by a couple of inches and are much thinner. Of course as he grows they will become less obviously over sized compared to his body.

It was lovely to see the head teacher put in his place and the boy start school, making friends and playing games with them like a normal child.

The condition is known, but what causes it hasn't been discovered yet.

Mad Dilys wrote:Did anyone catch the programme on Channel 5 last night The boy with the giant hands?

I didn't know there was anything else on last night MD except some football game?

I hardly watch anything live - well except for myself of course!

I hate adverts. I watch BBC on my kindle in bed so catch up is easy and I record anything else that intrigues me or series that I enjoy. Then I can fast forward when I view them and miss the advertising. Some programmes have 15 to 20 minutes of advertising in a programme which I zip past in less than a minute total.

I had a client well over 30 yrs ago and in the family there was a similar condition whereby there were certain bones in the body that just kept growing. Extremely rare and nothing that could be done about it here way back when. The Grandfather had passed of it, skipped the dad but the grandson had it. Was extremely debilitating and difficult with very few accommodations by way of medical equipment that could help.

It was very weird the fore arms and hands were thick with fat which made the operation extremely difficult as the nerves looked much like fat huge nerve to the hand like a leg vein.

His upper chest was also fat, but looked like muscle. Poor little chap.