How Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma became miracle man for two boys with a rare disease

June 19 was just another regular day in the life of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. But for Jeet Das, a 17-year-old man from the state’s Baska district, it turned out to be the day that will now change is life forever. Battling an undiagnosed disease and near blindness, Jeet was also facing social ostracization and constant ridicule because of his “strange look”. And then miracle happened in his life the moment Jeet’s now fabled encounter happened with Sarma.

The chief minister was on his way from official residence in Dispur, to his constituency Jalukbari, 25 km away. Midway, in Bhangagarh, he noticed a young boy with a scar on his face, standing at a bus stop. He immediately asked his convoy to stop and walked up to the boy. It was Jeet, who had been suffering from neurofibroma, a medical condition in which benign (noncancerous) tumours grow on nerves in the body. These tumours consist of an overgrowth of nerve tissue along with blood vessels and other types of cells and fibres. They can grow on nerves in the skin, under the skin or deeper in the body. In Jeet’s case, the growth was on the face, almost blocking his eyesight. 

On June 19, when he caught Sarma’s  attention, Jeet was waiting to catch a bus to go back to his village Uttarkuchi after undergoing a surgery on his tumour at Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). The neurofibroma affecting his eyelid had extended to the temporal region. The doctors at GMCH embarked on a debulking procedure to gradually remove the tumour in phases. The initial phase of the surgery successfully removed a portion of the tumour. “Jeet was scheduled for a follow-up review after two weeks, during which the second phase of the surgery will be conducted. He was at the bus stop just after the release from the hospital,” says Dr Abhijit Sarma, superintendent of GMCH.

When Sarma spotted Jeet, he could instantly diagnose the condition, not because the chief minister has any expertise in medical science but because he had a previous experience of helping out another such patient. In 2018, several Assamese newspapers and TV channels showed a report on Ganesh Gor, a nine year-old Adivasi boy from Bokakhat, who came to be known as “bear boy” because of the unusual shape of his face. He was also suffering from  neurofibroma. When Sarma, then health minister, saw the reports, he arranged for Ganesh to be operated in Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore.  He even want and met Ganesh in Bangalore after the surgery. “The moment I saw Jeet at the bus stop, my mind flashed back to the case of Ganesh whom I had met in 2018. I knew Jeet also had the same disease,” Sarma told India Today NE.

The chief minister immediately called up the GMCH superintendent Sarma and inquired about the status of Jeet’s condition and the treatment provided to him. He then directed the superintendent to ensure best medical care for Jeet at the hospital. Depending on the assessment by medical experts, if needed, Jeet will sent out of Assam for more advanced treatment and state government will bear all the expenses, assured the chief minister.  “I don’t know why you are asking me about this. I and my colleagues try to help out anyone in distress. There is nothing new to it. At times, we succeed, at times we fail,” says Chief Minister Sarma. 

Hoping to get back his eyesight and light of life, Jeet and his family are now extremely grateful to the chief minister. The 17-year-old, who lost his parents early in life, stays with his uncle and works in a chicken shop.