3-year-old needs bone marrow transplant to survive, says UAE-based father
Hassan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at one-and-a-half years of age
Dubai: The father of a three-year-old boy in Dubai, whose only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant, is desperately appealing for help.
Hafeez Khan, father of Mohammad Hassan, said the boy who is suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), needs Rs4.8 million (Pakistani) or Dh114,000 for his treatment, which includes one-two cycles of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, in Pakistan.
Hassan, who has not been able to attend school as he has been in and out of hospitals in Dubai and Pakistan, was first diagnosed with AML when he was only a year and a half. He remained under treatment at a Dubai hospital for nearly a year until October 2018.
“After a brief remission, he developed high fever and body pain on October 17 this year. When he did not respond to any regular medications, we took him to a Dubai hospital where his AML relapse was confirmed,” said the father.
He said investigations revealed that Hassan had a soft tissue mass in his sinus which was diagnosed as a chloroma, a solid collection of leukemic cells occurring outside the bone marrow.
Khan, who works as a site engineer for a Dubai-based company, said, “Hassan is my first born and I will do everything I can to save him. I appeal for any support that I can get towards this effort.”
He said the child was earlier scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant in Turkey but due to the prohibitive costs, they were nowconsidering Pakistan. “Still, the estimates we have been given are beyond our reach,”Khan said, adding that he was praying for a miracle to save his son.
What is Acute Myeloid Leukaemia?
AML is one of the commonest types of leukaemia or blood cancer in children. In AML, the body makes many immature white blood cells. These cells, called myeloid blasts, can’t mature into normal white blood cells. Although AML is a serious disease, it can be cured with high intensity chemotherapy and a bone marrow / stem cell transplant at an early stage.