Man seeks help to save cancer-stricken son
One-year-old boy needs urgent bone marrow transplant in India costing Rs4m
Dubai resident Nazeer Ahamed was in for a huge shock when his youngest child, Aahil Nazeer Ahamed, a boy just over a year old, was diagnosed with leukaemia.
The child needs to get a bonemarrow transplant in India, which is expected to cost around Rs4 million (Dh201,816), said Ahamed, who earns Dh11,000 as a sales supervisor in a private company in Al Quoz.
Ahamed said Aahil was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia.
It all started with a fever
“My son had fever, which was not subsiding. We took him to the doctor who prescribed some antibiotics. When that did not help, my wife and I took him to a hospital where more tests were conducted. The hospital recommended a paediatric oncologist. So we moved him to another hospital where more tests were done.”
Ahamed said his wife had already started to notice that Aahil’s lymph nodes were swelling. They looked like boils.
Precarious condition
“The doctors said it could be heart-related and we had to move him to another hospital. More tests were conducted and it was finally revealed that he had got leukaemia,” he said.
Little Aahil’s condition is deteriorating every day. “His lungs are filling up with water and he is finding it difficult to breathe. My son has been moved to Zulekha Hospital.
“He is struggling to breathe. Everyday his stomach swells up by a couple of inches. Only a miracle can save his life now,” Ahamed said.
‘Hard work pays’
Ahamed, who hails from Udupi district in Mangaluru, Karnataka, said he first came to work in the UAE in 1999 for a salary of Dh600. He worked in a shop as a “shelf boy”. In 2000, he joined NMC Hospital as a receptionist for a salary of Dh2,200. After that, I switched jobs and worked as a merchandiser in a trading department.
But with hard work, he managed to climb up the ladder and reach a supervisory position. “I have only known that hard work pays and I will continue working hard,” he said.