Children With Cancer: A parent’s worst nightmare

GBNEWS24DESK//

Young parents Ringku Mia’s and Shifa Akter’s world had turned upside down when their four-year-old daughter Farha was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer that originated from a tumour in her kidney.

Ringku, 35, and Shifa, 26, along with their entire family, have been living through a nightmare for the past four months.

They had to mortgage their only cultivable land in Habiganj’s Baniachong to pay for Farha’s treatment.

In an unfamiliar city with no relatives to turn to, Shifa, mother of three, left her eldest daughter in the care of her sister, while she and her youngest daughter, just two years old, spend their nights on the floor of the paediatric surgery unit-5 of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Meanwhile, Ringku stays in the hospital corridor.

Shifa’s two-year-old has also gotten ill from spending her nights on the cold floor of the hospital, while Farha herself is having to share a hospital bed with three others.

Remembering the diagnosis, Shifa said when her child had abdominal pains around four months ago, they did not initially take it seriously. However, when Farha showed signs of jaundice and continued pain, they took her to a doctor, who, after an ultrasound and a CT scan, referred them to the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) in the capital’s Mohakhali.

“We couldn’t believe his words and sought a second opinion from a private hospital in Dhaka. But we had to accept the reality and shift to NICRH as Farha’s stomach had begun swelling,” Shifa sobbed as she spoke.

“They gave her six rounds of chemotherapy there to shrink the tumour, before referring us to the Dhaka Medical’s tumour board for surgery. The doctors at Dhaka Medical performed the surgery on February 5 and removed the tumour and a portion of her kidney to prevent the cancer from spreading. She still needs to receive 27 more doses of chemotherapy and two doses of radiotherapy.”

Shifa added, “The whole process has so far cost us Tk 2 lakh, which we had to arrange without any help from others … We are somehow getting by.”