“It's heartbreaking to hear the painful cries of Christina. Sometimes I wish I had the pain instead because she is so innocent,” shares Christina's father. Christina, a five-month-old girl from Kenya, has a condition called hydrocephalus, where she has an abnormal head size due to the accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid in her head.
If Christina, a patient with the African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), is not treated, the fluid might cause brain damage. She is also “irritable due to the high intra-cranial pressure exerted on the brain,” shares AMHF.
$615 funds a treatment that will place a shunt into Christina's head to drain the excess fluid. The surgical care will “regulate the intra-cranial pressure in her head and lessen irritability.”
Christina is the youngest in a family of seven children, and her father works as a security guard while her mother stays at home and takes care of the children. Her parents cannot afford this treatment, but “hope that Christina will be able to get the surgery she desperately needs.”