By Andrew Carmichael
A mother of West Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) is finding it difficult to cope with the views of some medical personnel that her 11-month-old baby would soon die.
The child is suffering from Macrocephaly, a condition in which the circumference of the human head is abnormally large. According to Healthline.com, it may be pathological or harmless, and can be a familial genetic characteristic. People diagnosed with macrocephaly would receive further medical tests to determine whether the syndrome is accompanied by particular disorders. Those with benign or familial macrocephaly are considered to have megalencephaly.
Macrocephaly may be due to enlargement of the brain. A study conducted in an inner-city tertiary maternity hospital in Lagos, Nigeria from May 2005 to December 2007, showed that many infants survive the condition when the appropriate measures are taken.
Yogeeta Chandrapaul of Lot 21 ‘C’ Number 2 Village, West Coast Berbice told this publication that her daughter has no chance of a long life.
The eleven-month-old infant was delivered one month premature.
“After a month and two weeks, her head started to get bigger in size. I could not put on her clothes and let it squeeze for her head to pass through. If I do something like that, it would make her cry,” Chandrapaul told this publication.
She noted that she has to travel from the West Coast of Berbice to take the baby to clinic at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).
In addition to that, her child attends a clinic at the New Amsterdam Hospital and also the Health Centre at Rosignol.
“It’s everything that hurts her head when you interfere with her head. She does not like anyone to trouble her head. The forehead is very tender.”
The pediatric doctor, she said, has informed the mother of two that her baby daughter has a cyst.
“They say nothing can be done because she has a huge amount of fluid in (her) head. They ask me to do an MRI scan, and the scan showed that less than 20 percent of her head now is the brain.”
This can be rectified only through surgery. Doctors are not optimistic that the surgery would be successful.
“I think she has good common sense, but the doctors are not recommending surgery,” the mother has said.
Although the baby’s head seems to be more than double the size of a normal infant at her age, doctors are predicting that it would get even larger as time proceeds.
“They say that she’s not going to live very long, she has a short life,” the mother told this publication with tears in her eyes.
However, the young mother is not giving up, and thinks that all hope is not lost. Anyone who wishes to contact Yogeeta Chandrapaul can do so on telephone number (592) 672-6663.
