Abu Dhabi: The cost of a life-saving surgery for Grace Carungay’s one-year-old daughter may be provided for, but the procedure still seems out of reach.
Simple expenses like rent and daily costs are standing in the way of this mother availing a liver transplant for Baby Aleeyah, even though the procedure is her only way to survive.
“These seem like simple matters but I have no choice but to plead for people’s generosity. Through God’s grace, she has come this far, and all I need now are the funds to take care of my daughter to Taiwan, where she can undergo the surgery,” the 32-year-old Filipina mother Gulf News.
“What this means is that I have to stay there for three months during her surgery and follow-up. During this time, I have absolutely no money to provide for our rent and living expenses, which will come up to about Dh40,000,” Carungay added.
As reported by Gulf News last December (2014), Carungay’s one-year-old daughter, Aleeyah, was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a life-threatening liver disease in which vessels known as bile ducts are damaged. These ducts are responsible for carrying bile, which is produced by the gall bladder, to the liver for storage, and from the liver to the small intestine for helping food digestion. Bile helps in the digestion of fats. The ducts also allow for toxins and waste products to be carried out of the body.
The only effective treatments for the disease involve a surgical procedure in mild cases, or a liver transplant in advanced cases like Aleeyah’s.
The one-year-old has already been admitted to the hospital in Manila multiple times, and is often vomiting blood.
“The expenses I am faced with in Taiwan would not have been an issue if we could undergo the surgery in the Philippines. Unfortunately, they can only carry out the transplant in Manila in June, which will be too late for Aleeyah. Her condition is deteriorating every day and she needs the surgery this month,” said Grace, who works as a receptionist at a facilities management firm in Abu Dhabi and takes home Dh2,500 each month.
In the beginning, Carungay was desperate when she learnt that the transplant would cost about 4 million pesos (Dh329,000), and also required the need of a donor. Fortunately, one of Carungay’s sisters was able to step in as donor, and a generous offer was made by a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family to cover the cost of surgery and travel to Taiwan for Grace, Aleeyah and her sister.
“I am terribly grateful for this magnanimous donation. I now appeal to the people of the UAE for their generosity in helping me cross this last stage of securing my daughter’s life. Every dirham counts,” the mother added.
