• The boy is supposed to undergo neuro regenerative rehabilitation therapy, alongside integrative therapies.
• She said the condition has not only caused physical damage to her son but no special school is ready to admit him.
Image: Aura Ruth
A family in Mombasa is seeking help to raise Sh1.3 million ($10,250) to treat their six-year-old son Liverson Otieno in Mumbai, India.
Millicent Akello said her son was born a healthy child until September 14, 2019, when everything took a new twist.
Akello said her son was jovial and healthy but on that day everything turned into a nightmare. She said her son asked for tea, which he was given, and he slept but he did not wake up.
“When we realised that my son had overslept, I went to check on him and held him but he started convulsing. I took him to a dispensary and the doctors referred me to a subcounty hospital, but upon arrival I was referred to Siaya County Referral Hospital,” she recalled.
A brain CT scan was done to him, revealing he suffered from cerebral hemiatrophy, a common childhood disease that clinically manifests with seizures, weakness or the inability to move on one side of the body and mental retardation. It can be present from birth, or can be caused by injury during birth, or infection, among others.
The doctors recommended for MRI to be done and referred them to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Akello said after spending days in the hospital and after being given CT scan and MRI results, she was told her son had a problem in his brain.
“From there, I started looking for treatment in different hospitals, I have been to almost all the hospitals in Kenya. I even tried seeking for treatment in a hospital in Uganda," she said.
"We were later referred to doctors in Tanzania who told me that such cases have been reported before among children and my child can only be treated before he clocks eight years.”
Liverson will celebrate his seventh birthday in July this year.
The boy is supposed to undergo neuro regenerative rehabilitation therapy, alongside integrative therapies.
This is according to the doctors report from the NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute.
The treatment protocol includes 14 days hospital stay, where he will be extensively evaluated clinically.
Otieno will also undergo a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, which includes physiotherapy, occupational, speech therapies and psychological counselling.
The treatment also includes regenerative treatment with autologous bone marrow derived cell transplantation.
Akello is now appealing to well-wishers to help her raise money to save her son's life in India.
She said the condition has not only caused physical damage to her son but no special school is ready to admit him.
“My plea is to all well-wishers and any person, as a mother you can never be at peace seeing your baby in this state," Akello says.
"I have even tried to take my child to special schools but all in vain. I have received calls from special schools to go and pick my son just a day after enrolling him and buying everything because of his condition. He cannot do anything on his own. I'm calling upon anybody to help me so that my child can get treatment.”