KATHMANDU: Never had Bishal Adhai Magar, 28, imagined that his three-year old son would survive a severe kidney ailment.

Asmin Magar, who is barely 41 months old, has been recuperating at the Norvic International hospital, where he underwent a complex urosurgery for stone 12 hours ago. He is the youngest patient upon whom a surgery of this kind has ever been carried out in Nepal.

The surgery was performed employing the Mini PCNL (Mini Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy) technique, an improvement on Minimally Invasive Surgery requiring only 0.5 cm scar in abdominal part of the patient on the affected side.

"Asmin would not have survived had Dr Sanjay Khadgi not done a miracle," said the child's elated mother, Punam Budha Magar. The baby will be sent home after 48 hours.

The Magars hail from a remote Baglung village. Their poor economic condition and the delayed diagnosis had nearly cost the baby's life.

"Asmin's kidney was swollen by the time they approached me," says Dr Khadgi, a senior kidney stone specialist. "Further delay and the baby would not have been saved."

"When we first reported the case of blood content in the kid's urine to a local health post, they said he had been suffering from ecolie bacteria," said Punam.

Asmin seemed sound for some time only to face the urinal complication again. He was admitted to Kanti Children's Hospital immediately after reporting a severe right flank pain, where the kidney ailment was diagnosed.

An estimated 2,500-3,000 people suffer from kidney ailments every year in Nepal, majority of who are cases of kidney stone. A kidney surgery for stone costs between 20 and 50 thousand rupees in the country, a price barely affordable for a family like Magar's. Ever since Mini PCNL technique was introduced in Nepal three-and-a-half years ago, the kidney surgery costs have fallen.

Dr Khadgi is glad to have performed a complicated surgery on Asmin free of cost. "It's my biggest joy ever that my little assistance has helped people like Asmin live," adds Dr Khadgi, who claims he has already performed nine such surgeries free of cost on poor patients.