Child with brain outside skull needs financial assistance for surgery

"This family needs URGENTLY Sponsor for relocation as much as financial assistance for the baby"

By The The

New Delhi (Mizzima) – In a rare case, a child with his brain outside the skull, badly needs financial assistance as surgical expenses, his parents, a Burmese refugee couple from Malaysia said.

The baby boy, who was abnormally born has his brain in a small pouch like cyst in the back of his skull, and frequently suffers from convulsion and seizure. The seven-month- old baby has to be taken to clinic at least twice a month, his parents said.

"We are now on the way to the clinic. He has high fever and is now almost unconscious. He was seriously sick last month also. The doctor gave him lumbar suction treatment," his mother, an ethnic Chin, Man Sien Cin said.

She said, she wants a surgery on the baby as the doctor said the boy, without an operation, would at the most survive a year.

"But we have no money," she said.

The medical expenses provided by 'United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee' (UNHCR) cannot cover all the expenses and his father has to do odd jobs to meet expenses.

But his father cannot work at distant places as his baby, Hau Khan Khai, is frequently sick. He has to do menial jobs and odd jobs available at nearby places.

The boy was born in Klang hospital in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur city in July and he is their first child.

"The doctor said that his brain is outside the skull and there are flesh and pus instead in the skull. If he is shaken when he is held, he cries loudly in severe pain," his mother said.

There is a soft cyst on the top of his skull and his right leg and right fingers are a little deformed.

Man Sien Cin said, just after giving birth to her son, she was given lactation suppressant by the doctor and she could not breastfeed her son. The son has been fed with baby cereal food besides milk powder since he was four months old.

The family of Man Sien Cin hailing from Sielthawzang village, Tonzang Township of Chin State, reached Malaysia in 2007 and was recognized as refugees by UNHCR in early 2007.

To contact :
Ms. Man Sien Cin
Cell : 006 + 016 + 9729 610

Published: January 16, 2009