Dubai: A Dubai mum is desperately seeking help for her teenage daughter who is suffering from a life-threatening kidney ailment.
Indian Valanka Noronha, 16, has been undergoing dialysis three times a week since March. She needs an urgent kidney transplant but mum Jessie, 45, says the family barely has the means to cover costs.
“Doctors have advised a kidney transplant but we don’t have the resources for that. Yet I am sure if she somehow undergoes the surgery, she will be back to her usual self and back in school to write her board exams she missed in March,” says Jessie, who earns Dh7,800 per month as an administrative staff at a hospital.
Her husband who works as a chef on board cargo ships is mostly based in Goa, India where the family is from and is unable to fund the treatment, says Jessie.
Insufficient funds
“He is often without jobs for months. So I have to bear the bulk of our expenses including rent and school fees for our younger daughter, Venetia. My husband is trying his best to support us but we can only go so far. The cost of medical expenses is way too high and now the transplant,” rues the Karama resident.
Valanka, who loves cooking and wants to be a masterchef, was diagnosed with renal impairment proteinuria (presence of abnormal quantities of protein in the urine) in 2010. After several kidney biopsies in India in May 2011, it was established that she had Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a nephrotic syndrome in children and adolescents and often a leading cause of kidney failure in adults.
Early this year, she was found to have stage five Chronic Kidney Disease and advised Renal Repla-cement Therapy.
Valanka’s condition is critical. She cannot drink more than 1,000ml of water a day as it interferes with her dialysis. “It can be life-threatening if she misses her dialysis sessions. She is on lifelong medications and gets severe muscle cramps when her sugar levels and blood pressure get low. At times she feels so weak that she almost collapses,” adds Jessie, who along with her husband have been ruled unfit as donors.
The duo claims to have finally found a distant relative medically fit to donate a kidney to Valanka but the transplant, to be done outside the UAE will cost around Dh220,000).
Valanka’s three dialyses per week are currently covered by the insurance policy provided by her mum’s company.
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