4-year-old’s brain surgery a success
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD child from the TRNC has had a successful 10-hour operation on a brain stem tumour, her family announced on Wednesday.
Last week we reported that a fundraising campaign had been launched to help pay for the costs.
Ill Emine Benli and her family travelled to Turkey so that she could be treated at the Acıbadem Hospital in İstanbul upon the direction of the TRNC Health Ministry.
Over £5,000 has been collected for Emine from 70 donors. Sergül Mustafa, who set up the GoFundMe online appeal page, said that donations to the family are still needed due to upcoming drug treatments.
In a statement last week, the TRNC Health Ministry noted that hospitals other than Acıbadem could offer free treatment based on protocols they had signed and that the family had been fully informed of this.
However the family’s statement noted that Emine was taken to Acıbadem to be treated by paediatric neurosurgeon Professor Memet Özek based on the Health Ministry’s recommendation.
Neval Benli, Emine’s mother, said that her daughter was “put to sleep” in the hospital’s intensive care unit for 48 hours.
She was then “woken up” for the analysis of any side effects of the operation and so that “vital physical therapy and psychological support interventions” could be started.
In eight weeks’ time the family will be given “detailed pathology results” but as of now Emine is undergoing a “rapid recovery process” in the house of a “sensitive citizen” who opened up their home to the family.
Young Emine will continue to receive regular medical dressing and check-ups at the Istanbul residence, the statement added.
Mrs Benli offered her “eternal thanks” to the Health Ministry, the Presidency, the TRNC’s Istanbul Consulate, Acıbadem practitioners and nurses, and all the institutions, non-governmental organisations, and individuals who helped Emine.
“I would like to express our gratitude on behalf of my family for the sensitive and devoted efforts of all our citizens for moral and material help in a short period of two weeks since the beginning of this difficult process, despite the pandemic period,” she said.