Family of six-month-old boy with swollen head awaits help
A six-month-old boy in Manipur has been found to be suffering from hydrocephalus, a rare fatal condition that makes the head swell.
This is the second such case in the Northeast after Tripura’s Roona who died two months ago at age 5.
Seiminsang alias Mimin was born healthy to Lhunkhomang and Nengneithem Kipgen on January 26 at village Govajung bordering Myanmar. The couple, like most of some 300 villagers, are daily wagers.
The boy’s head started bloating after he turned a month. Nengneithem said they had taken the child to hospitals at border trade town Moreh near their village and at Tamu in Myanmar.
The doctors there confirmed Mimin’s case as that of hydrocephalus, a condition that causes cerebrospinal fluid to accumulate in the brain leading to extreme swelling and a build-up of pressure.
“They told us to take him to a better-equipped hospital and said the treatment would be expensive,” she said. Mimin, she added, is the youngest of her six children.
In April, when Mimin was three months old, the parents tried taking him for a check-up in state capital Imphal about 120km north.
“The vehicle they were in met with an accident and they had to cancel their trip. We hope they can afford the treatment with public support,” Robert Kipgen, whose WhatsApp group visited the family last week and donated ₹20,000 for treatment.
“The boy’s weight is now 15kg but his head alone weighs 10kg. Because of the size of the head, he cannot crawl, sit or roll over and the skin of his head has stretched out pulling his eyelids over his eyes,” Robert told HT.
Unlike a Delhi-based private hospital that operated on Roona for free in 2013, no health care facility in Manipur has come forward to help the boy. State health officials are also yet to react.
The Kipgens hope the BJP-led coalition government would take notice of Mimin’s pain, especially with Prime Minister Narendra Modi having come to the aid of children suffering from rare or complicated diseases.
“Miracles can happen, if the government or generous people help us,” Lhunkhomang, the boy’s father, said.