Woman battling blood cancer gives birth to twins at Indore hospital

Indore: A 22-year-old woman suffering from blood cancer gave birth to twins at a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, with doctors terming it as a rare case.

Talking to PTI on Monday, assistant professor Akshay Lahoti of the clinical haematology department at the Government Super Specialty Hospital said the woman had chronic myeloid leukaemia, a deadly form of blood cancer, and conducting a safe delivery for her in such a situation was a challenge.

The super speciality hospital is attached to the city’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College.

“When the woman was admitted to our hospital after becoming pregnant, the count of white blood cells (WBC) in her body was many times higher than normal. Hence, we could not prescribe her normal cancer medicines and chemotherapy during pregnancy,” he said.

Lahoti said after consultations with experts from India and abroad, the woman was given special medicines to ensure that her health and the condition of the twins in her womb were unaffected.

Gynaecologist Dr Sumitra Yadav said, “The woman was not told that she had blood cancer. We wanted her mental health to be absolutely fine during pregnancy.” She said the woman gave birth to a boy and a girl through normal delivery, and the mother and the twins are healthy.

Yadav said this was the woman’s first pregnancy, and the birth of the twins has brought joy to her family.

According to doctors at the hospital, there have not been many cases of safe delivery of women with chronic myeloid leukaemia in the world.