HELP TODDLER WITH ENLARGED TUMMY

SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes

IS there hope for 2 year old Maradona Mundyoli, with an enlarged stomach to receive medical treatment in view of his family struggling to raise money to cover hospital bills.
The bulging stomach has made it difficult for the little boy to live a normal as he is now in constant pain and cries while his friends are busy playing. Even just sitting is a problem for little Maradona.

In a rather bizarre case, the 2 year old boy of Zimba in Southern Province has been denied the childhood he deserves due to a health condition that he developed last year.
The Lusaka Sun team was told that Maradona’s stomach started bulging in May, 2018 and people paid little attention.

The latest information is that Maradona’s grandparents have travelled back to their home town in Zimba district to look for some money to pay at the hospital this week as they take him for a checkup.
Maradona’s grandfather, Most Hachaamba told the Sun in a telephone interview yesterday that they were trying to sell three (3) goats at K150 each as they waited on the boy’s father to return from Kazungula district where he had gone to look for some money.

Mr. Hachaamba complained that there was no market for the goats in the area and that they keep hoping that something else comes up to help them.
Meanwhile, a team of youths willing to help the boy and his family has come together and will meet the boy’s grandparents as they return to Lusaka.
Mundyoli’s grandmother, Ms. Hachaamba said in an interview that it all started as a small lump on the right side of his tummy.
She said that everybody in the family thought that it was a normal thing that would eventually disappear after some time not knowing that it would completely change the life of the little boy.
She said that after three months, they discovered that the lump had disappeared and it was then that the stomach of the baby started getting bigger.

“It kept growing big day by day and it was at this point that we took him to the hospital. We moved from hospital to hospital and I can tell you that we have been to almost all the hospitals in Southern Province but doctors have failed to help,” Ms. Hachaamba said.

She said that after realizing that the stomach continued to grow they were referred to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka (UTH) in December 2018.

She said that the boy was admitted on December 6, 2018 and that he was partially discharged on the April 4, 2019.
The Sun team that visited the boy in Lusaka’s Kuomboka compound where he and his grandparents are temporarily living found the boy in a seemingly painful state.

She further said that some tests could not be carried out because the hospital management has been requesting them to pay certain amounts of money that she said they could not afford.
She said that they are currently waiting for the results of some samples of blood among other things that the hospital sent to India for examinations.
Mrs. Hachaamba explained that the boy’s parents who are peasant farmers were presently busy trying to raise money for their child’s medication.
She however appealed for help from well-wishers stressing that any effort made to help her grandchild would be appreciated.
She would also be happy if the boy got help from government just the way the boy with needles in the stomach was being assisted.
She said that she would love and will be happy to see her grandchild cheerful again, and live like other children do.

For help contact Mrs Hachaamba on 0978521533 or come through to The Sun offices in the showgrounds, Stand No.F18