Ten-year-old cancer warrior stranded in India

Jaipur, India. In 2018, Simon Leiyan Chege, a father of two, discovered that his firstborn son, Lewis Chege, 10, was very unwell.

Mr Chege, 37, had watched his son get convulsions. So he checked into the Texas Cancer Centre in Nairobi. The condition did not improve. It was cancer.

“He had convulsions, seemed to be confused most of the time, could endlessly talk to himself, scream a lot while in school and then the hand tremors,” he told the Nation.

“His classmates at Winners Academy, Kimana, Loitoktok, Kajiado County contributed money, helped reassure him and prayed with us especially last year when he missed an entire term as we had brought him to India for brain cancer treatment.”

“When he completed his first treatment there, he lost his hair but the kids did not make him feel bad about it. They visited him home to celebrate that he had come back after treatment even though the treatment never worked then.”

Further scans revealed that there was no change in Lewis’s brain tumour. Dr Paul Lubanga of Kenyatta National Hospital then referred them to India.

After consultations, Max Super Specialty Hospital in New Delhi was introduced to him by his insurance company.

“I have observed that Kenyan doctors are good but lack equipment and a conducive working environment compared to Indian doctors who are not only good but have all the specialised equipment.”

Now in India, they are stuck amid a spiralling lockdown.

“We need help out of this place,” said Mr Chege.

“The air isn’t fresh. We would appreciate any help to get back home,” his son, Lewis, told the Nation.

India recently prolonged its 21-day lockdown to help contain the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19). By Friday, Covid-19 had infected 13,835 people in India, killing 452. Another 1,777 patients had fully recovered, according to data by Worldometer.

In reaction, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decreed a total lockdown on India, barring travel between cities or from cities to the rural villages.
That has seen Kenyans who had travelled to India to seek treatment unable to leave their places, even when they planned to do so.

Mr Chege and his son Lewis landed in New Delhi on February 26, 2018 and immediately started on hospital procedures while hoping that all will be well for them to go back home in no time.

“I am a father of two and my wife stayed behind to take care of our toddler,” Chege said.

“She raises money from family and friends, then sends to us if she gets anything because sometimes she doesn’t get at all.”

“Before the lockdown, I had to carry him on my shoulders and walk to the hospital because he is too weak to walk to and from the hotel and I cannot afford a cab.”

They are now paying Sh3,750 daily for accommodation. The hotel they are living in has a common kitchen shared by four other guests but their room is self-contained.

Although Lewis has improved, the lockdown has become a new curse, making it difficult for them to exit even if help were to come their way from friends.

“Last evening Lewis had some leftover rice I had prepared for him at lunch while I took a cup of strong black tea with the little sugar that was left and forced myself to sleep.”

This week, government officials said they were unable to repatriate Kenyans stuck in India mostly because they can’t get an airline that would accept to hop from one city to another, gathering them up.

But the explanation of the difficulty in hiring an aircraft was met with shock here.

“We are left wondering whether those in power have ever been hospitalised or had patients to take care of,” Mr Chege tells the Nation, referring to the infamous comment by Foreign Affairs PS Macharia Kamau, when he appeared before a Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations.

The Kenyan High Commission in India has not helped them either, they claim. Last week, the Mission headed by Willy Bett urged Kenyans to share their contacts and identification details.

According to Mr Chege, Kenyan patients stranded in India feel it is better to be quarantined in Kenya as long as they are back home and will comply with all World Health Organization regulations, government procedures and directives.

“We are suggesting that government should allow us to crowdsource funds from fellow Kenyans of goodwill and our families since they said they do not have money to cater for a repatriation flight.”