Parents appeal for help treating baby with swollen head
The parents of Roona Begum, whose head swelled to three times its normal size have pleaded for financial aid to pay for her treatment.
3:38PM BST 07 Jun 2013
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Roona Begum, from the remote rural village of Agartala in India's northeastern state of Tripura, she suffers from hydrocephalus or water on the brain, an illness which causes cerebrospinal fluid to build up on the brain, inflating the skull.
The sheer weight of her enlarged 37 ins head meant she was unable to sit up or crawl.
Roona's story led to an initial flood of global donations allowing her to have the medical care she need, after her picture was taken by AFP and circulated around the world
Director of neurosurgery Dr Sandeep Vaishya, who has personally cared for Roona recently carried out the first of many costly Cranial Vault Remodelling operations to reconstruct her disfigured skull.
He said: "We did not expect Roona to survive this long. We had a lot of worries initially. The treatment has gone much better than initially expected. The head size has reduced by about 30cm (12ins) and has come down to around 54cm (21ins). We aim to reduce this by another 10cm (4ins).
"Her case has been very challenging as we don’t have any precedent to fall back on and nobody to guide you at any step. We have kept on reinventing ourselves everyday according to the situation.
"It is still a long challenge ahead, but the one thing that can be said she has finally started to look human. She used to look like extra terrestrial. And after a couple of more surgeries she will start looking like a normal kid."
Despite doctors Roona's condition improving, her parents – whose daily income is just £2 a day – are struggling to foot the shortfall left by a string of complex procedures.
So far the treatment needed to save the 18-month-old is estimated to have cost between £33,000 and £36,000, around 30 times initial predictions which placed the cost at just £1,120.
Currently Fatima and Abdul Begum are between £11,000 and £13,000 short, with aftercare costs set to send the bill spiralling.
Donations can be made at: www.fortisfoundation.in or www.roonabegum.org
