Pupil raises hope for children with birth defects parents

Whoever saw Shanita Were, 7 years ago, when she had just been born, could not help getting sad. Minutes after delivery, her head started to swell considerably.  The fear, then, was far worse and far hard to comprehend.

“In two days after her delivery, my daughter’s head had grown to assume the size of a big pumpkin,” Ramathan Were reflectively testified as he tenderly, stroked now, grown, bundle of healthy little girl, in his company.

When her daughter's head swelled, then, he recalls, her facial features inevitably got disfigured: “Her eyes, then, dissolved into their sockets assuming a ghostly white appearance. She hardly suckled and was motionless”.

Were made the remarks during the official launch of the Brain Surgery Run at Cure Children’s Hospital in Mbale city.

The brain surgery run is an annual outdoor event, aimed at among others, to create awareness of horrendous birth defects, among newly born.

The most common ones include sudden, considerable, swelling of an infant’s head (hydrocephalus) and abnormal puncture/hole/ opening along the spinal cord column of an infant, which renders, fluid to ooze freely ooze out (Spinal-Bifida).

The brain surgery run is also intended to remind the public, not only on high prevalence of the birth defects, but imploring them not to neglect the troubled infants for the conditions could be fixed, free of charge, at Cure, a specialised children hospital in Mbale.

Entities and individuals of means within and across the globe sponsor surgery bills for every troubled infant requiring surgery.

Were attests that relief would only come after the child had been booked for surgery with when, together with his wife, Salima Muduwa, would get relief after the infant was, then, booked for surgery.

“We’ve since witnessed a miracle unfold,” he said with a beaming smile.

Since undergoing surgery, Shanita has over time adopted normal child growth milestone. The infant has since recuperated and continues pulling surprises.

When the child reached school-going age, they dutifully enrolled her and she has since pulled surprises as she has posted exemplary performance.

“Last term, she was the sixth in a class of 57,” said the girl’s father.

Dreaming big

The P.2 pupil at Bugema B Primary School in Mbale city, nurses a dream of becoming a medical doctor, when she grows up.

“I want to treat sick people,” she innocently snaps.

Shanita is among the over 10,000 children who have recovered from birth defects after successful corrective surgery at Cure a specialised children’s hospital.

Dr Timothy Erickson, neurosurgeon and director of the hospital, revealed that last year alone, the health facility performed a total of 2,057 surgeries.

A neurosurgeon is a specially trained medical doctor who diagnoses and treats conditions that affect your nervous system — your brain, spinal cord and nerves.

The number of surgeries performed at the hospital has been progressively increasing over the years from 500 to over 2,000 annually.

“There has always been a need to hold a cure surgery run event every year, to create awareness among the public, but also mobilise resources from individuals and entities of means across the country to enable execution of the noble chore fixing hundreds of troubled infants nursing birth defects admitted regularly at the hospital,” he said.

He explained that infants regularly admitted at the health facility are largely children of less privileged parents from the remote countryside who would not have afforded the prohibitive surgery bills estimated at shillings 7.5 million.

The theme for this year’s Brain Surgery Run event slated for October 18, 2024, is: The Run to save a life.

Causes and management of these birth defects  

Dr Julian Abeso, the head of the paediatric department at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital says in extreme circumstances when a child is found to be suffering from a rare sickness, a paediatrician will always refer cases to ideal discipline specialists for further management.

She added that while spinal bifida is a birth defect, numerous factors are responsible for these conditions. However, the most common cause is meningitis.

“Often expecting mothers are so susceptible to the ailment. Without proper treatment an expecting mother could pass the ailment to the unborn children, hence interrupting with the embryo development process of the unborn child in the womb,” she said.

Other risk factors responsible for these conditions in infants include avoiding ante-natal health care services during pregnancy, as well as mothers that opt to deliver from undesignated places. 

Dr Emmanuel Wegoye, a neurosurgeon at Cure Hospital, says hydrocephalus conditions are usually managed by surgery "to relieve pressure of accumulated fluid in the head of the infant".

Hospital profile

The hospital is part of a broader health charity entity CURE INTERNATIONAL, one of the leading health institutions that attracts neurosurgeons from around the world.

The hospital was established in 2000 by an American evangelist and neurosurgeon, Dr Benjamin Warf, with the aim of not only checking but finding a lasting solution to growing cases of physical disabilities of infants on head and backbone that at the time, had no hope of ever attracting a productive future as virtually all children, then, haunted with these conditions eventually succumbed to brain damage and blindness before dying.

The hospital has upheld the legacy of the founding neurosurgeon that embraces science skills blended alongside strong Christian faith.

Today the hospital performs more than 2,000 surgery procedures annually. 

“Among these pioneer patients are those pursuing bachelors in human medicine,” Wegoye says.