After miraculous recovery, Bengaluru's 'black fungus' survivors await facial reconstruction

Nearly 30 patients who recovered from the dreaded black fungus disease await extensive facial reconstruction in government hospitals alone, doctors said. While 72 patients succumbed to the disease, 49 out of 959 have been cured.

In state-run Victoria Hospital, where 190 Covid patients have been treated for mucormycosis (black fungus), 17 have undergone ‘exenteration’ to remove the eyeballs, content of the eye socket, the tip of the nose and jaws.

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With half of their face gone, the patients need surgery to get areas of their face fixed with skin tissues to get a semblance of their old look. But that can be one of the last stages of recovery three to six months after getting rid of the fungal infection, Dr Manoj Kumar, Dean, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, told DH.

“We have done exenteration on 11 patients where some had nasal sinuses and jaw(s) removed,” Dr Kumar said. “One of our first challenges is feeding them without a jaw. They have been put on a feeding tube, inserted with the help of major surgeries. This tube can’t be kept for long, so we opt for Jejunostomy, which is surgically creating an opening through the front of the abdomen to facilitate feeding.”

Out of the 108 surgeries done in the hospital, 15-20 are major ones, the doctor said. While jaw reconstructions have been planned for the patients, doctors also use prostheses to enable them to eat and talk again. “Their speech will be 80 to 90% as it was earlier, based on tongue involvement,” he said.

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Dr Sujatha Rathod, director, Minto Eye Hospital, said 17 out of 37 patients suffering vision loss due to mucormycosis underwent exenteration. While 11 of them died, seven had been found with the intracranial spread of the infection. Two of them have been discharged against medical advice.

Five of the 17 patients who had exenteration were women, while three were aged 27, 29 and 31.

“The fungus is fulminant, meaning it is severe and sudden in onset,” Dr Sujatha said. “As a result, it spreads rapidly. If patients fail to notice early signs when it reaches the nasal cavity, the infection spreads to the eye. Exenteration is a destructive procedure, and we opt for it as a last resort.”

Some of the 11 patients to have had exenteration had an entire part of their face removed, right to the bone, she said.