“I sometimes wish I could melt into her and understanding the feeling that she has. Diana is but too young…maybe it’s complicated to understand…but all I want is her free from any pain,” shares the mother of Diana—a six-year-old girl living with spina bifida.
“Diana has a mass swelling on her lower backbone area,” our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), explains. “She is not able to walk and is at risk of infection, progressive delayed milestone and continued inability to walk.” Already, Diana’s peers have outpaced her developmentally, as it’s easy to “mistake Diana for a three-year-old due to her size.”
Diana’s mother, a nursery school teacher who lost her husband in early 2014, is not able to raise the funds required for Diana’s spina bifida operation. Diana was also born with an excess amount of cerebrospinal fluid in her brain—a condition known as hydrocephalus which required insertion of a shunt to drain the fluid. Her parents were able to afford this treatment, but could not continue with the repair of Diana’s spinal lesion.
For $805, Diana will receive this spina bifida closure operation. The surgery “will help reduce the risk of infections, and possibly help Diana regain her walking ability,” AMHF reports.
Diana’s mother proudly tells AMHF how Diana can count numbers perfectly well even having never gone to school. Let’s help this young girl get back on track with her physical and mental development so she can soon attend school for the first time.
