The timely intervention of the government helped Mohammed Nahyan, a two-year-old boy from Mathilakam in Thrissur district suffering from eye cancer, to go to a Chennai hospital for emergency treatment.
Little Nahyan, son of Fazil and Abida of Kulimuttam, Mathilakam, has been suffering from retinoblastoma (eye cancer) for the past one-and-a-half year. He was diagnosed with the disease just four months after his birth.
As a rare disease, there was no treatment for retinoblastoma in the State. So his parents approached Sankara Netralaya in Chennai for treatment.
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For the past one-and-a-half year, Fazil and Abida have been shuttling between Chennai and Mathilakam with the toddler. The boy has been undergoing cryotherapy for the past five months. It has to be done in every 21 days.
The boy should have been taken for the treatment on March 25. Though they reached Valayar on March 24, they were not allowed to go to Chennai because of the lockdown.
When the parents contacted the doctor at the Chennai hospital, he asked them to go immediately.
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The desperate parents then sought the help of E.T. Tyson Master, MLA. He then contacted the Chief Minister and the Health Minister. Considering the seriousness of the case, they asked the District Collector to make arrangements for their journey.
Little Nahyan started his journey to Chennai in an ambulance arranged by the district administration with his mother and grandmother on Wednesday morning.