Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Treatment

Just before Christmas last year, I blogged about a 17 year old boy named Chau - check the original post here. Chau is from Hue, in central Vietnam, and at age 15 he went to work in a garment factory in Ho Chi Minh City. When he became sick late last year, the boss fired him and sent him home, which is when one of our staff stumbled upon him in his village.

Chau was seriously ill when we met him; his throat was swollen, he could hardly move, and he was in terrible pain. The Hue Hospital diagnosed cancer, and started radiotherapy, but there has always been some doubt about Chau's condition. Another doctor has been worried that Chau might have an infection whose symptoms are very similar to those of cancer; in which case radiotherapy is a very bad idea.

So today Chau is travelling to Hanoi with his father to visit the Oncology Hospital - known as the K Hospital - in Hanoi. The doctors there have agreed to test Chau and try their best to determine the cause of his illness.

We're going in to this knowing that cancer cases - if that's what this is - can be very difficult and costly. We really don't know where this path will lead us, but we have to go down it anyway. How could we fail to help Chau?

1 comment:

Sudipta Das said...

Hello Michael
on this issue I am fully agree with you. but If we want to combat against a dreadful disease like cancer we need a comprehensive knowledge of the cancer symptoms that can lead to the infliction of the disease which would help us to nullify

its consequences at the elementary level.

thank you

sudipta das