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As soon as Priyanka heard the word 'cancer', it immediately triggered her past trauma. Having already lost her parents to cancer, she was in denial that now her son too has acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer.
"A year ago, our local doctor asked me to take my son back home instead of the hospital because he wouldn't be able to survive beyond a week. His body had stopped making blood and he was solely surviving on blood transfusions. I was so naive to think that feeding him healthy food would increase his blood counts whereas it was actually cancer ravaging his body. I was so shattered that I just refused to believe my 6-year old could have a deadly disease like blood cancer." - Priyanka, mother
Her son blacked out because of losing so much blood
Seeing all the symptoms appear one by one on his body, left Priyanka feeling helpless for being unable to protect her son. His blood counts were critically low and even after transfusions, he would still appear so pale and weak. Despite the doctors losing hope, she kept insisting they continue his chemotherapy. Within a year, his reports started showing recovery with the cancer blast miraculously on the lower side."Seeing my son get better each day was beginning to make me almost forget that terrifying warning of our local doctor. I even started looking for schools to admit him. But once, while he was asleep, I noticed some black spots visible all over his hands and blood oozing out from the channel in his vein. I tried to wake him up but he had blacked out because of the blood loss. I rushed him to the hospital only to find that his cancer has returned." - Priyanka, mother
Priyanka's 6-year old rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state
With this relapse, chemotherapy alone is not powerful enough to destroy his cancer cells
Unfortunately, this time her son's reports showed 96 percent of cancer blasts in his body. He was immediately administered salvage chemotherapy, which is given when cancer fails to respond to other regimens. But this will still not be enough as his cancer will return as soon as chemotherapy is stopped. He needs to undergo a bone marrow transplant at the earliest, which will cost them INR 36 lakhs.Just when Priyanka thought her days of financial struggle were over years ago, life put her in a critical spot all over again. Her husband, Naveen, was out of work while she was pregnant and she had no option but to work at people's houses that would fetch her Rs.100 a day to fend for themselves. But 6 years later, their son's cancer diagnosis in June 2022 had again wrecked this couple financially.
No work at hand and rising medical bills has put this couple in a dire situation now
Naveen lost his job last year because of multiple leaves due to their son's treatment. Recently, he has been working as a helper at a grocery store but even they are not able to keep up with his frequent absence due to the hospital emergencies."Last time, our relatives pitched in monetary help to get my son treated. But now, even they are not in a capacity to help us any further because they have their own families to provide for too. With an amount as huge as INR 36 lakhs, nobody is even willing to loan me anything. My married sister sends Rs.2,000-3,000 monthly for our food and medicines but I don't know how long she will be able to extend that help too." - Naveen, father
Despite their son's deteriorating condition, they had to get him discharged from the hospital because they ran out of funds. Their son is unable to drink or swallow anything orally because of the ulcers. This has put them in a dire spot because though this cancer is progressing rapidly in their child's body, they are unable to do anything about it.
Please click here to help this couple save their 6-year old son from cancer with a transplant.
Identity of the child is protected in adherence to government guidelines.
