Monrovia – Six-year-old Junior Doe is currently home due to his family’s inability to foot his medical bill at the John F. Kennedy Medical Hospital in Sinkor, Monrovia.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Little Junior needs at least four injections every week till a surgery is done at an advanced medical facility, outside Liberia. The little boy’s father can’t the US$160 per week for the four doses weekly.
Junior was initially referred to the hospital with a tentative diagnosis; however, doctors were surprised to find an incredibly rare form of cancer – Burkitt Lymphoma.
This disease attacks healthy cells that are working in the immune system.
In most cases like Junior’s, it will be fatal if left untreated.
According to doctor, the six-year-old has poor prognosis since he was diagnosed.
His face is now deformed with a life-threatening tumor, which has robbed him of his smile, left him struggling to breathe and drove some family members to disown him, leaving just his father and mother to care.
The tumor first appeared on his cheek as toothache on July 1, 2018. It is swiftly growing completely swamping his facial features.
The little boy travelled along with his parents from Grand Kru Country to Monrovia to seek medical attention at JFK. It now seems their reason of being in Monrovia is not improving his life.
Doctors in Grand Kru initially thought it was a non-cancerous tumor; but in Monrovia, his parents were told that their son has got a rare form of the disease.
According to Mr. Fokay Doe, father of Junior, his son is taunted of being a “monster,” by the way he looks presently. He added: “His jaw just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
By early July, Mr. Doe further narrated that his little boy started having tooth pain and jaw swelling.
According to him, doctor told him that the disease can be managed but said “the earlier the better.”
“Since my son was diagnosed with this Burkitt’s lymphoma, I don’t have money to get him advanced treatment abroad,” he said, sadly.
“It was a knob on his jaw that has grown so fast; now I have to be using towel to be wiping the blood. He cries the whole day from the pain.”
Mr. Doe is pleading for help to save his son’s life.
“I am a farmer and I can’t afford the money to take my son to hospital. I’m crying that I am about to lose my son to this disease; he really needs help,” he stated.
He said authorities at JFK hospital told him that they don’t have the capacity to do the surgery but that they can be mitigating the situation until he can be flown out of Liberia for advanced treatment.
According to him, for four injections weekly, he will be required to pay US$160 and pay L$5,000.
Doe doesn’t have the money and is worried about his son’s life.
“I hope he can be cured; all I want is for him to be well.”