Pledges of help pour in for young boy with rare disease

• 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.

Stanley’s body is filled with moles and folds of dark skin that threaten to cover his whole body. His mother told the Nation that he noted a black patch on his stomach when he was born.

Folds of dark skin

Doctors had assured her that it was a birth mark and would gradually disappear as Stanley grew older.

Many readers offered to help the boy seek medical help while other offered financial assistance.

“Thank you for highlighting the story of young Stanley. I wish I could help,” Mr Kilimo Kapchairo, from Sudan said.

From the photos, he said, the boy could be suffering from a rare tumour known as haemangioma.

“I would like to do anything to help the boy and his family to find a cure and live a normal life,” said Mercy Ondiek from New York.

Mr Charles Oloo Otieno, a Senior Civilian Peacekeeper, in Philippines is another Kenyan who has offered to help.