Thursday, June 26, 2008

Leaden fears

Ashwin's homecoming might happen sooner than we had planned, which was for July 7th.
The test for the lead content in his blood reveal a very high concentration that made the lab in Mumbai wonder if the child was alive at all. V spoke to the doctor at Sri Sankara who said he had a few cases, some from Indian kids in the US, but they are nowhere near the levels found in Ash. He asked us to take a second opinion before putting him on medication.
So V went to Dr. Kuruvila in the morning, who said the value could be wrong (which is what I am hoping too). He wants another test done at the earliest at Lister Lab in Chennai before starting the medication. Either of his grandparents might have to take the responsibility of bringing him here since these are busy days at work for V, June being their accounting year end. We have to plan by tonight.
While the dr. in Kerala says the problem probably started in the neo-natal stage (the traditional practitioners think it is the special ante-natal treatment that I underwent during the first pregnancy, which my gyn Dr. Nandita thinks is rubbish), Dr. KT has his doubts on the Siddha medicines Ash took for 3 weeks. Siddha, I learnt later, uses arsenic, lead, mercury and a couple of other toxic metals in small doses (homeopathy is also reported to use some of these) and since there is no quality control or dosage restrictions, people can put themselves at risk especially if they go to quacks.
Old paint and children's toys (most of which available here are Made in China) are other suspects. Save for the brief panic when Chinese-made toys were banned in the US, we have been pretty complacent. We need to identify the sources of exposure and try to eliminate them.

1 comment:

the other romila said...

Oh my god!
this is so much worry. so much lead?? wonder how he got it.
hope all works out fine and you find the right treatment.

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