Muscat, May 30: An Indian expatriate father is hanging on to the last ray of hope a liver transplant to save his four-year-old boy from cirrhosis.
However, Mohammad Zakir has exhausted all his savings in his fight against the disease to cure Mohammad Zaid in the last two and half years.
From the day doctors at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital told him that a liver transplant is the only option, the assistant pharmacist with the government hospital in Ibra is wondering where he will get more than 20,000 Omani riyals for the operation.
“The doctors at the sultan Qaboos University Hospital have told me that liver transplant is the only option for Mohammad Zaid,” Zakir told.
He said that after Zaid turned two, he was diagnosed with the liver cirrhosis.
According to a medical report given by Dr Siham Al Sinani, Consultant, Paediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, at the SQU Hospital, Zaid has been diagnosed with Tyrosinemia type I with liver cirrhosis and improved renal fanconi syndrome with rickets.
“With recent development of liver lesion, likely to be hepatocellular carcinoma, the patient (Zahid) is a good candidate for liver transplantation as the lesion is small and isolated and primary disease is curable with liver transplantation,” Dr Al Sinani has written in Zaid’s medical report.
He said that the toddler’s liver had enlarged with evidence of macronodular cirrhosis.
“I have already spent most of my savings so far on Zaid’s treatment,” said the father of two, who earns 450 riyals total monthly salary as a Health Ministry employee in Oman.
He said since Zaid was undergoing treatment they didn’t enrol him in school. “We thought once he is completely cured we can enrol him,” he said, adding that otherwise, Zaid was normal and plays with his ten-year-old brother Mohammad Faiz.
“I hope we get help to raise funds for Zaid’s liver transplant,” Zakhir appealed.
-Agencies