There is nothing most 4-year-olds dread more than waking up early in the morning. But not Estaru Rani, she always got out of bed with a smile on her face and looked forward to going to school with her elder brother, Akhil (6). But it has been 6 months since she last stepped out of the house. Only 6 months since a rare cancer of the nervous system wiped the beautiful smile off her face.
Rani underwent surgery for her tumour immediately after her diagnosis, but it did little to improve her condition. The cancer did not go away and now she needs a bone marrow transplant. Her parents don’t even know what a transplant is. “The doctors told us that only this big operation would save her. We don’t know what it means but we want to save her,” he adds.
The specifics of this case have been verified by the medical team at the concerned hospital. For any clarification on the treatment or associated costs, contact the campaign organizer or the medical team.
“Before she got sick, she was a bubbly child who filled our lives with happiness. For poor people like us, children are our only source of joy. My child did not deserve this,” laments Rani’s father Koteswar Rao, a daily-wage labourer in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh.
Rani ran a fever for 40 days, that weakened her body and spirit
How did a vivacious, energetic 4-year-old suddenly become so sick? This was the question that troubled Rani’s parents. “It started as a small fever only. We gave her the usual medicines and thought she had eaten something bad. But it did not go away. It started intensifying and my baby grew weaker,” says Rahellama, her mother.Rani's parents only know that their daughter is very sick
A few trips to the doctor and a detailed diagnosis later, her parents got to know the real cause of Rani’s weakness and it was too much for them to take. “I had heard of people getting cancer and dying, but did not have a fair idea of what it was really until it happened to my child. We did not fully fathom its seriousness until Rani got really, really sick. We kept pleading with the doctors to make her pain go away,” recalls Koteswar Rao.Rani underwent surgery for her tumour immediately after her diagnosis, but it did little to improve her condition. The cancer did not go away and now she needs a bone marrow transplant. Her parents don’t even know what a transplant is. “The doctors told us that only this big operation would save her. We don’t know what it means but we want to save her,” he adds.
Fevers have become a daily affair for the poor child
As a cruel symptom of acute cancer that is slowly killing her, she keeps getting fevers. She had lost so much weight (6 kgs in 40 days) that her brother kept asking her parents why his sister is not going to school with him anymore. “We keep reassuring him that Rani has a small fever that would go away in a few days, but he seems to understand and is too sad to say anything. He misses running around the house with his sister too as she is mostly resting or sleeping nowadays,” says Rahellama, adding that even her youngest son, 1 and-a-half-year-old Nikhil senses something is wrong with his big sister as she rarely plays with him anymore.How you can help
Koteswar Rao only earns about Rs 400 per day. Estaru Rani needs a bone marrow transplant that will cost around Rs 7 lakh, which he cannot afford. He had already borrowed a lot of money to buy medicines and pay for Rani’s tumour surgery. He wants to see his daughter smile again. That is his only wish. You can help him.Supporting Document
The specifics of this case have been verified by the medical team at the concerned hospital. For any clarification on the treatment or associated costs, contact the campaign organizer or the medical team.
