In desperate need of a heart surgery
Robert Kirangwa is a shy seven-year-old. When his father Augustine Kigo, introduced me to him, while looking sideways and twisting his handkerchief with both hands, in a barely audible voice he said, “Good morning madam.”
Though small in size, at first sight, kirangwa looks healthy. You cannot tell there’s anything wrong with him. But he has a hole in his heart, a condition known as congenital heart disease and it requires open heart surgery.
When asked what was wrong with him he says, “My chest pains all the time. It pains a lot whether I play or not. And I always have flu and cough.”
Kirangwa is in primary two and stays in Busega with his mother Margaret Nanziri.
He says, “Maths is my best subject and I scored 98 per cent in it last term. But I do not know what I want to be in future.”
Kigo says since birth, his son has been sickly. “He would always have malaria. We were always in and out of Rubaga Hospital because of malaria. He had flu and cough all the time, found it difficult to breath and his heart would pump rapidly and loudly. You could see it by merely looking at his chest and even if seated far from him, you could hear his heart pumping. We thought he had asthma.”
He adds that Kirangwa also used to sweat a lot all the time whether it was hot or cold. And he had a very poor appetite. One time he got so ill that he was admitted and put on oxygen for two weeks.
“But even when sick, he would still play in the compound with his friends. He is one of those children who do not really show that they are sick,” he says.
When he was three years and his condition remained constant despite medication, doctors at Rubaga Hospital recommended that he is taken to Mulago Hospital heart institute. That’s when they got to know that something was wrong with his heart.
Money is needed
“The doctors told us to get money because he needs to be operated in India. They say his hole is expanding by day so he needs to get operated soon. But we do not have $14,900 (approximately Shs41m) that is needed for the treatment. And the doctors say his condition is worsening by the day because the hole expands with time. We are requesting well-wishers to come to our help and save my son’s life,” pleads the father.
At the moment, Kirangwa survives on drugs which he has to take every day and the parents say if he does not, his heart pumps rapidly and he feels weak. The parents have to spend Shs180,000 on drugs monthly. With a father that is a peasant farmer in Sembabule and a mother who is a cook in Busega, all they can afford is the money for the monthly drugs which the father says also requires them to sacrifice so many other things.
