2 weeks Ago By Prashant Rupera
Vadodara: Just a few months ago, 14-year-old Nitesh Tipaniya from Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, was a typical happy-go-lucky teenager. But two and a half months ago, his world turned upside down. Nitesh suddenly began experiencing paralysis in his right hand and leg, followed by a frightening loss of vision in his left eye.
What unfolded next was a journey through rare medical diagnosis, financial struggle—and ultimately—a miraculous recovery. Rushed to hospitals in Dahod, Ahmedabad, and finally to Vadodara, Nitesh was diagnosed with an extremely rare condition in children: renal arterial stenosis— a blockage in the kidney arteries.The condition had caused dangerously high blood pressure, which in turn triggered a brain stroke and a severe vitreous haemorrhage in his eye, leaving him partially paralysed and blind in one eye.
On March 13, doctors in Vadodara placed a stent in his renal artery to control the hypertension. But the chances of saving his vision appeared slim. "He was already on blood thinners due to the stroke," explained Dr Parth Rana, retina trauma and ocular surgeon at Netralaya Hospital, Vadodara.
"There was continuous bleeding in the eye and MRI showed large clots beneath the retina. We were not optimistic." For his lower-middle-class family, the battle was as much financial as medical.
They had already spent over Rs 5 lakh of their savings treating the brain haemorrhage and kidney issue."We had no insurance. I run a small kirana shop and my father is a potter," said Nitesh's father.
"We didn't know how we would manage. All we wanted was for our child to see again." The next phase of treatment was risky.
On April 9, an anti-VEGF injection was administered to reduce bleeding inside the eye. Then, on April 17, he underwent a complex vitrectomy surgery performed with a 3D visualisation system and supported by a specialised paediatric anaesthesia setup designed specifically for delicate retina procedures. "The child's condition was fragile—unstable blood pressure, risk from general anaesthesia, and massive clots inside the eye.
On top of that, the blood thinners made the surgery extremely high-risk," said Dr Rana. But then came the moment no one dared to expect. "Within a day of the surgery, Nitesh started regaining his vision," Dr Rana said.
"It was nothing short of a miracle." Doctors describe the simultaneous rupture of tiny blood vessels in both the eye and brain — within a 24-hour window — as exceedingly rare, occurring in one in a lakh cases. While the family still bears the financial weight of his treatment, their son is recovering, step by step.
Nitesh can see again — and with that, hope has returned to a family that refused to give up..
