Assist a child who can’t eat food
MORE than R1.2 million has been donated towards the medical treatment of 3-year-old Aaron Lipschitz, who suffers from a disease that prevents him from eating.
Aaron was diagnosed in the first few weeks of his life with Interleukin-12 Receptor Defect, a rare incurable disease affecting his immune system. Of the few known cases worldwide, he is the only child unable to consume food.
The fund-raising campaign went live on January 31 and has so far secured more than R1.2m towards their target of R1.5m, with contributions from hundreds of donors.
Donations ranged from R100 to R300 000 from national and international donors.
Aaron’s parents, Steven and Taryn Lipschitz, noticed at the age of two weeks that their child was responding negatively to his feeding. Hospital visits determined that he was among 0.1% of babies born allergic to breast feed milk protein.
Any food item, formula or liquid, excluding water, causes severe pain and discomfort to Aaron, who takes a pancreatic enzyme pill Creon every two to three hours to digest the expensive formula Neocate. His body cannot tolerate anything else.
“It’s still so difficult to process. We are an average couple without any significant medical history, so to have such a unique child has been really surprising to us,” Aaron’s parents said.
Last year doctors could see the formula was no longer providing Aaron with enough nutrition to accommodate his growth, and he was fitted with central lines and catheters to begin Total Parenteral Nutrition, commonly used for coma patients.
“A port runs through Aaron’s heart and every evening he is fed intravenously, avoiding his digestive system,” said Taryn.
Proudly South African crowdfunding platform BackaBuddy is in charge of Aaron’s - campaign. “We have been blown away by our BackaBuddy experience. For the first three years of Aaron’s life we tried to manage without community support, emotional and financially. It was a big step for us to share Aaron’s story and ask for help.
“Our BackaBuddy campaign has exceeded our expectations,” said Taryn. “We urge people to go to the Sunflower Website to register as bone marrow/stem cell donors. The process is as simple as a phone call, filling out a form and having two vials of blood taken.You could save Aaron or another person waiting for their miracle.” – Staff Writer