Hydrocephalus threatening three-year-old boy’s future
Miracle Asinguza, the child with hydrocephalus. He needs about Shs4m for an operation. Photo by Francis Mugerwa.
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Instead of enjoying the joys of motherhood, Joan Nsugwa spends her time trying to look for ways of rescuing her baby from the dreadful hydrocephalus.
When Joan Nsungwa, 33, gave birth to a bouncing baby boy three years ago, little did she know that the health of her child would soon deteriorate.
“When Miracle Asinguza was three weeks old, he started vomiting and got persistent fever before the head started swelling gradually,” she says sadly before bursting into tears.
Nsungwa, a peasant farmer, does not know the illness that threatens the life of her child. She is also not sure of whether she can raise the money for the treatment. She has abandoned farming, her main source of livelihood to pay attention to her child. Unfortunately, there is little or no progress in improving Asinguza’s health.
“The head continues to swell and I have not raised any money for treatment,” she adds.
She keeps walking around the streets of Hoima town fundraising for her child’s treatment but few have come to her rescue. “When I’m lucky, I get between Shs2,000 to Shs5,000 a day,” she says as she repeatedly weeps while looking at the head of her child.
After realising there is little hope in raising the money, the family has taken Asinguza back to their home in Buswekera North LCI in Busiisi Division of Hoima municipality, about six kilometres away from Hoima town.
Asinguza’s father William Kitakule, 62, is a subsistence farmer just like the mother who also keeps complaining about his own deteriorating health.
Nsungwa says her husband has moved around several health facilities in the district including Hoima regional referral hospital and has been referred to Mulago hospital. They do not have the money required for transport and meeting other required medical costs and as such, seem to see little hope in the survival of their sixth child.
Doctors at Mulago and Hoima referral hospitals referred Asinguza to Cure Hospital which deals with brain related illnesses. He needs about Shs4m for an operation at this hospital.
While at the age of three, many children are able to walk and speak, Asinguza cannot do either.
The district health officer, Dr Joseph Ruyonga, said the child requires surgery.
After seeing photographs of the child, he said the child suffers from hydrocephalus.
“Some ventricles in that child are abnormal,” he observes.
He said there is either increased secretion of the spinal fluids in the child’s brain or poor absorption of the spinal fluids.
“The swelling is caused by the persistent increase in the fluid in his brain,” he said.
Hydrocephalus may result from inherited genetic abnormalities such as the genetic defect that causes aqueductal stenosis or developmental disorders, such as those associated with neural tube defects including spina bifida.
Other possible causes include complications of premature birth such as intraventricular haemorrhage.
Diseases such as meningitis tumours may block the exit of Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the ventricles to the cisterns or eliminate the passageway for the spinal fluids into the cisterns.
