News
Pledges of help pour in for young boy with rare disease
Posted Tuesday, June 2 2009 at 10:10
In Summary
- Offers to help Stanley streamed in from Nation readers both locally and abroad.
- Dr Micheni said the condition, neurofibromatosis, is a congenital disease that is hereditary.
Scores of readers touched by the plight of eight-year-old Stanley Badia have responded, offering to help the young boy get treatment.
Offers to help Stanley streamed in from Nation readers both locally and abroad.
Many also wondered what the cause of the growth, highlighted exclusively in yesterday’s Daily Nation could be.
Kenyatta National Hospital Director Dr Jotham Micheni, however, said the boy’s condition can be treated — despite the boy’s mother, Ms Sylvia Atieno, being told by doctors at the same hospital that the disease has no cure.
“Every time I go to hospital they give me painkillers and advice me to feed him well. Last month doctors told me that it was a mole disease and it has no cure,” she said.
Proper diagnosis
Dr Micheni said the condition, neurofibromatosis, is a congenital disease that is hereditary.
“We have had cases before where patients have growths on their face, limbs and trunk like the young boy. These have been treated through surgery,” he said, and directed the boy to go to the hospital’s Plastic Surgical clinic.
“A proper diagnosis will be made then after thorough tests,” he said.
However, a medical microbiologist, Dr James Ngugi Muthotho says the growth is caused by bacteria, which the boy was born with.
“I discovered the bacteria when working at Kemri,” he said, adding that the boy can be cured with proper diet and application of a medicated ointment.
He offered to treat Stanley for free at Jamaa Hospital, Harambee estate where he works.
Dr Navinder Sigh, who deals in homeopathy says the boy can be treated using that branch of medicine. This is a form of alternative medicine that treats patients with heavily diluted preparations that are thought to cause effects similar to the symptoms presented.
“We treat the symptoms of the ailment,” he said.
He is opposed to surgery as the mole will grow against.
-
Submitted by VikkiTPosted June 02, 2009 03:55 PM
-
Submitted by katagawa
Dr. Micheni, you need to check the competence or lack of it among your staff, unless you will be personally diagnosing all cases that come in. I was also told that my child, who had vitiligo, could not be helped. I still don't know if vitiligo is curable. I hope the hermaphrodite boy of last week got help as well.
Posted June 02, 2009 01:41 PM
RSS
Dr. Micheni, Why would you wait until stanley and his family's plight be highlighted in a national story to suddenly diagnose something that your hospital pretty much ignored? Perhaps if you had conducted the necessary tests earlier in his life it wouldnt have become as massive and painful. Give me a break unless you're offering to help instead of referring him to the Plastic Surgery Unit.