MD IS HARD TO PREVENT AND PARENTS FOUND TO BE
HAVING
THE GENE ARE ALWAYS ADVISED AGAINST HAVING KIDS.
ELDORET
(Xinhua) -- All parents feel passionate about their child. They
would do anything and will never stop to believe in their child.
With that kind of
feeling no expectant mother would think of having an abnormal or disabled child
like developing diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Muscular dystrophy
(MD) is a genetic disorder that gradually weakens the body’s muscles. It’s
caused by incorrect or missing genetic information that prevents the body from
making the proteins needed to build and maintain healthy muscles.
Many children with
muscular dystrophy follow a normal pattern of development during their first
few years of life, but in time common symptoms begin to appear.
A child who has MD
may start to stumble, waddle, walk on the toes without the heels hitting the
floor and may start struggling to get up from a sitting position.
Anthony Kahinga and
Duncan Dungere are brothers, who have lived in Kimumu Children’s Home in Sinai
Eldoret, western Kenya, for the last seven years.
Kahinga and Dungere
were given birth by a single mother, at Munyaka village in Eldoret. The now 15
and 10 years old children respectively were born normal without any disability.
Both their mother and grandmother worked tirelessly to see them through school.
At the age of 8,
Kahinga started developing weak limbs which deteriorated day after day. Shortly
after, it was followed by his left leg, which developed paralysis and could not
carry him around.
His mother took him
from one hospital to another, but due to lack of funds, Kahinga was unable to
get proper medication, and the mother did not get to know the cause of his
sudden disability.
According to their
new found guardian Obadiah Karuru, who also teams up as the founder of their
new home, Kiplombe People Living with Aids (KIPLWAS), the boy’s mother got fed
up after a series of trials and abandoned the boys to the care of their grandmother.
“They soon became a
burden to her as she found it hard providing their daily meal,” he said, “She
then decided to look for help from her neighbors who advised her to bring them
to the home.”
Karuru is a
46-year-old father of 8, who has lived with HIV virus for the past 10 years. He
fought so hard to do away with stigma in his life and when he finally did he
felt it would be better to help other patients accept their status.
He embarked on an HIV
awareness journey that saw him care for the HIV orphaned children more, hence
the interest of accommodating and giving them their right to education.
Karuru turned his
Kimumu house to a children’s home before raising funds to expand it. It was
initially a home for the HIV orphaned children, but also opened doors for
Dungere and Kahinga after seeing their suffering and their need for care and
protection. He has since begun a school and has given hope to more than 200
children.
“I first admitted
Kahinga into the school as he commuted from his grandmother’s house, where I
catered for his daily transportation to and from school,” He said.
“That did not offer
much help to them as getting their daily meal was still a big problem to their
custodian,” he said.
As time went by,
Karuru felt the children needed more attention than just the transport, meals
and school. He felt they needed more care and protection. He therefore talked
to their custodian, and finally admitted them permanently into the home.
“The day I admitted
them into the home is the last day I saw their grandmother and relatives,” said
Karuru, during an interview.
He took Kahinga’s
sudden disability as a normal physical challenge and never imagined that it
could get serious, or that it could be genetic as it later turned out.
At the age of 8, the
younger one of the two boys Dungere also started developing similar symptoms as
seen in his elder brother.
Luckily for him, it
happened at a time when the first bone surgery hospital in Kenya, St Luke’s
Orthopedics and Trauma Hospital was opened in Eldoret.
He sought medical
help at the hospital, which confirmed that the boys were suffering from
muscular dystrophy. He was advised that the disorder was genetic and that it
had no cure except for therapy.
Karuru kept to weekly
therapy sessions for the brothers at a cost of 5.85 U.S. dollars for each. He
has committed himself to ensuring that the boys receive the therapies despite
their financial implications on him.
Dr. Lelei Kibor, a
specialist orthopedic surgeon at St. Lukes Orthopedics and Trauma Hospital is
handling Kahinga and Dungere’s cases.
He explained that
there are several major forms of MD, which can affect the muscles to varying
degrees.
