Abigael is the youngest in a family of three children from Kenya. She developed meningitis and pneumonia at eight months old. It was while at the hospital receiving treatment that her head circumference started increasing in size at an abnormally high rate. A scan early last month revealed that Abigael has hydrocephalus, a condition associated with excess fluid in the head, and a surgery is required to ease the pressure Abigael is in.
Now at 16-months-old, if not treated, she may suffer brain damage which may result in death.
Abigael lives with her mother and siblings in a three-room house in Central Kenya. Abigael’s mother is a primary school teacher and the sole provider, having lost her husband in an accident two years ago, before Abigael was born.
Abigael’s mother was advised to seek specialized treatment, but it comes at a cost her mother cannot afford. For $685, Abigael will have a shunt inserted to reduce the pressure in her head and allow her to grow up healthy.
“It is hard to raise the required funds for my daughter’s surgical care and the little savings I had were all used up during her previous stay in the hospital,” says Abigael’s mother.