Grandma needs help to treat grandsons’ health problems

JITRA: Despite living in poverty and suffering from diabetes, Tom Samah, 63, is determined to look after her two young grandsons with chronic health problems to the best of her ability after both their parents disappeared.

Tom said her 17- month- old grandson Amar Darwish Azhari started developing chronic skin disease since the age of one after getting an injection at a health clinic here.

“However, the rash disappeared but he then started developing skin infections on his head.

“Since then, he began experiencing problems of the skin peeling, becoming dry and scaly almost on his entire body, and cried everytime we bathed him due to the pain and itchiness,” she told reporters at Kampung Tandop Kedabu, Kuala Jerlun here yesterday.

According to Tom, a diabetic patient with all her right toes being amputated and blind in one eye, there were times when Amar Darwish scratched his skin until it started to bleed.

If that was not distressing enough, Amar Darwish’s elder brother Iman Darwish, three, has difficulty to stand and walk and was diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from softening of the bones on his hip, and Tom could not afford the treatment.

With financial assistance from the Social Welfare Department stopped on the grounds that she failed to update her account, Tom faced difficulty to buy milk for her grandsons and relying heavily on her son and daughter-in- law for help.

“Now I am relying on my son, Mazri Ahmad, 30, who works as a lorry attendant with an income of about RM600 a month and his wife, Ruzaini Zainol, 29, to help care for both boys,” she said.

Those interested in doing their part can contact Ruzaini at 0175808985 or bank in contributions to Bank Simpanan Nasional account number 0213441000050189 ( Tom Samah). — Bernama