Health Minister Altuğra denies ‘Baby Asya’ claims
CLAIMS that Asya Polatlı, the child with a severe form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) whose plight made headlines last year, has been with left without milk and medical supplies, have been branded as “false” by Health Minister İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra.
Mrs Altuğra made the comment during a BRT TV interview last Friday, during which she said: “The baby regularly receives the baby food she needs and all her food and medical supplies are provided by the Health Ministry.
“It is untrue that the baby has been left without milk and baby food.”
Emphasising that little Asya, who will be two in October, is “not suffering”, Mrs Altuğra said she was “bewildered” by the allegations.
The day before the interview Asya’s mother, Güler Polatlı, had written on Facebook that she had been trying for “two days” to obtain “vital” drugs and medical supplies, including catheters and special milk, for her daughter but was told they were out of stock.
“This child can’t swallow her saliva and chokes,” she wrote.
“We were promised there would be aspiration catheters in stock but there are none . . . She could come face to face with death at any moment.
“In a developed country, a mother does not have to leave her house and argue with many people to get the milk and medical supplies her child needs to survive.
“There are records and a doctor’s letter proving that these are needed, they should be delivered to the house so a mother can take care of her child.”
Last year fundraising events were held to raise money for Asya to be treated with a drug called
Zolgensma, said to be one of the most expensive drugs in the world with a price tag of over $2 million.
She eventually received the drug at the Makarios Children’s Hospital in South Nicosia last October after the Greek Cypriot administration offered to provide the single-shot gene therapy, which is said to greatly increase the chances of a child with type 1 SMA living beyond the age of two.