Mumbai: After trying for a decade to have children, a city couple welcomed twin daughters three years ago. Last month, while riding along a badly damaged stretch of the Kalyan-Badlapur Road, their scooter slipped. The family fell, and one of the twins suffered grave injuries when another motorcycle struck her.It took 12 days for her discharge and a month before doctors declared her stable. The child was discharged earlier this month. The family’s final follow-up was on Monday. “The doctor has now confirmed she is normal. We don’t have to visit anymore,” said her father, who works at a local meat shop.However, it is more complex than that, and the “normal” condition can change with time. The impact shattered the child’s skull, tore her scalp in multiple areas, and caused some brain tissue to leak. “She had a fast recovery and is clinically normal,” said Dr Khursheed Ansari, a neurosurgeon at Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, who treated the child.“But scientifically, it is difficult to determine the full extent of the impact at this stage. There is a small possibility she may face intellectual or cognitive challenges,” he added. There is also a risk that the child could develop seizures. “Nothing can be certain with a brain injury this severe at such a young age. But so far, she is like any other child,” Dr Ansari said.What followed the accident was a night of chaos and desperation. Between 6pm and 11pm, the family rushed to three hospitals. It was not until the following day that they were comfortable with a hospital. Some hospitals lacked the expertise and referred them elsewhere. Others demanded large sums without any clear explanation, said the child’s father.“At the last hospital, we were told the procedure would cost around Rs 4 lakh. But at least the reasoning was sound,” he said. The surgery to reconstruct the child’s scalp lasted six hours and required close coordination between neurosurgeons and plastic surgeons.Dr Ansari said plastic surgeons are brilliant when parts of the scalp are lost. “We had to discard dead tissue, then work with what remained. Using local tissue flaps, they managed to close the wounds without needing grafts from other parts of the body,” he said.Before that, the neurosurgery team controlled the bleeding and closed the ruptured brain membrane using locally harvested tissue. “We then reconstructed the skull, and the small fractured bones were put back with titanium screws,” Dr Ansari said. The child is now back home, still recovering. But for the family, the future is a wait-and-watch. Mumbai: After trying for a decade to have children, a city couple welcomed twin daughters three years ago. Last month, while riding along a badly damaged stretch of the Kalyan-Badlapur Road, their scooter slipped. The family fell, and one of the twins suffered grave injuries when another motorcycle struck her.It took 12 days for her discharge and a month before doctors declared her stable. The child was discharged earlier this month. The family’s final follow-up was on Monday. “The doctor has now confirmed she is normal. We don’t have to visit anymore,” said her father, who works at a local meat shop.However, it is more complex than that, and the “normal” condition can change with time. The impact shattered the child’s skull, tore her scalp in multiple areas, and caused some brain tissue to leak. “She had a fast recovery and is clinically normal,” said Dr Khursheed Ansari, a neurosurgeon at Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, who treated the child.“But scientifically, it is difficult to determine the full extent of the impact at this stage. There is a small possibility she may face intellectual or cognitive challenges,” he added. There is also a risk that the child could develop seizures. “Nothing can be certain with a brain injury this severe at such a young age. But so far, she is like any other child,” Dr Ansari said.What followed the accident was a night of chaos and desperation. Between 6pm and 11pm, the family rushed to three hospitals. It was not until the following day that they were comfortable with a hospital. Some hospitals lacked the expertise and referred them elsewhere. Others demanded large sums without any clear explanation, said the child’s father.“At the last hospital, we were told the procedure would cost around Rs 4 lakh. But at least the reasoning was sound,” he said. The surgery to reconstruct the child’s scalp lasted six hours and required close coordination between neurosurgeons and plastic surgeons.Dr Ansari said plastic surgeons are brilliant when parts of the scalp are lost. “We had to discard dead tissue, then work with what remained. Using local tissue flaps, they managed to close the wounds without needing grafts from other parts of the body,” he said.Before that, the neurosurgery team controlled the bleeding and closed the ruptured brain membrane using locally harvested tissue. “We then reconstructed the skull, and the small fractured bones were put back with titanium screws,” Dr Ansari said. The child is now back home, still recovering. But for the family, the future is a wait-and-watch.