Little Ullas’ favourite time of the day is walking to school with his father, Prabhakar. Clutching on to his school bag and his water bottle dangling from his neck, Ullas hops and skips his way to school while telling his father all the things he will do with his friends that day. Prabhakar smiles, and pats him encouragingly, all while worrying about his son’s impending treatment. While Ullas looks like every other child his age, his body, isn’t. Ullas has been fighting a deadly blood disease for 9 years now and getting blood every month just isn’t enough to keep him alive. Prabhakar has less than two months to arrange 43 lakhs for Ullas’ bone marrow transplant, but after years of medical expenses, Prabhakar is lakhs in debt and has no way left to save his only child.
“The past few years have been incredibly difficult for all of us. We found out that my wife also has a blood disease a few years ago, and she was asked to stop working at the garment’s factory owing to her ill health. Ever since then, I’ve been the sole breadwinner of the family. I’m trying to do my best for my family, but now I have nothing left. We couldn’t even celebrate my son’s 10th birthday last month because I have no money. His condition will only worsen with time.” – Prabhakar, father.
Ullas’ life-threatening disease was left undiagnosed for 9 years
Ullas loves going to school and playing on the cycle with his neighbourhood friends. For the first two weeks of the month, Ullas is active and cheerful, and watching him play in the house, his parents sometimes forget about his illness. However, as the month progresses, his parents begin to worry about him. Ullas gets weaker, eats less and looks extremely pale. That’s when they know that it’s time for his blood transfusions - the only thing keeping him alive since he was a baby.“He was hardly 1 when we found out that there was something wrong with him. He started getting blood every month, but no one could tell us what the disease was. All the tests that they ran came back normal. All they told us was that he needed blood every month. Ever since then, I’ve taken him to numerous hospitals over the years, only to return disappointed. I had almost given up. I had decided to continue treatment as long as I could.”