SL COUPLE DESPERATETO SAVETHEIR NEWBORN CHILD

A Dubai-based Sri Lankan couple is seeking help to pay the mounting hospital bills of their newborn son who is undergoing treatment for a respiratory problem.

Mohammad Hussain Samath, 49, said his wife Prinsley Perera, 39, delivered their first child on Novem- ber 27. Shortly afterwards, the child began to experience breathing difficlties. “He was admitted to the Iranian Hospital where he was placed on a ventilator. But he was later moved to the University Hospital in Sharjah.”

A medical report by the Iranian Hospital confirmed that the baby was suffering from meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), a condition which occurs when meconium or the infant’s first stool is present in the lungs during or before delivery.

A doctor at the hospital said the baby was suffering from primary preliminary hypertension due to MAS and was later shifted to a Sharjah hospital as it had the specialised neonatal ventilation facilities for treatment.

Mr. Samath said the baby was making progress, but the rising costs of hospitalisation were weighing on them.

He is a guest services staff member at a hotel. He said his monthly salary of Dh. 1,400 was insufficient to meet the costs. “We have already spent over Dh. 30,000 which we borrowed from friends. The doctors are good and our baby is getting better, but we have no idea how we will pay the mounting charges,” he said.