My name is Bhaskar and I want to share my story with you. I remember how happy my wife, Lakshmi, was the day our son R Raji Reddy was born. She kept looking at him. I cannot blame her because he was perfect – plump cheeks and very big eyes. But he was a little yellow. We did not worry too much about it as most babies face this issue. We thought it would go away in a few days, but it turned out to be a much bigger problem. It only took 5 months for our Raji to change from a healthy baby to one with a severe liver disease.

Raji’s stomach fills up with water once in every 3 days

When he was 5-months-old, my wife noticed that Raji’s stomach was hard. He did not show any signs of discomfort but his abdomen felt hard. It really worried us. We took him to the hospital, where after a few rounds of tests we were told that our sweet baby’s liver was not functioning properly. No medicines could cure it, he needed a liver transplant. We were shocked. I asked the doctor again and again if they were really talking about our baby, because it was too much for me to take. But my wife Lakshmi reacted differently; there is a blankness about her that continues till this day.

Our lives revolve around frequent hospital visits now

After Raji was diagnosed with the severe liver condition, we had to visit the hospital once in every 15 days. His stomach had to be relieved of the water that accumulated in it. My child did not weigh much but because of water filling up his abdomen, he became very heavy. It hurt to think that while he was losing weight, the water filling his stomach was his weight. However, he rarely cried. Our innocent baby used to be calm through all that he was put through, and only cried when he was really hungry.

Raji’s mother is anxious about the health of her baby

Lakshmi has lost interest in speaking to anybody, even me. She is always attending to the needs of the baby and that is all she cares about now. She has become very nervous and I fear that it may be bad for her health. She had suffered a miscarriage in the first year of our marriage, and Raji’s birth had given her some happiness. But now all she asks me is “How will we save our baby boy?” I don’t know what to tell her as even I am not sure whether Raji will be fine.

He is very tired and his eyes are yellowish. I know that he is facing a lot of discomfort and finds it difficult to even move, but the poor baby is too young to even say, ‘Nanna, it hurts’. However, we have not lost hope.

How you can help

 I am a tractor driver, and regular work is not easy to come by. On some days, I am able to make enough to feed my family, but on others I struggle, depending on who hires me to work. On a good month, I make about Rs 10,000. Raji’s hospital expenses have been hanging like a sword over my neck. I have borrowed from a lot of people and spent almost Rs 4 lakh on his treatment in the last 10 days. I have decided to be his donor but I need a lot more money to save my only son. Please help me.