Joy is from Zambia. She was born healthy, but around 6 months of age she started showing signs of a mysterious illness. Joy’s parents did the same thing that many people in their community do when faced with an unsolvable health problem. They took her to a traditional healer.

Traditional healers, or “witch doctors”, are common throughout Africa. Some are even licensed through an organization.

They use traditional herbs, magic wands, and spells to “heal” people.

The traditional healer made charms out of roots to put around Joy’s house. He made poultices to rub on her body. He said someone had put a spell on her to kill her since they thought she was too pretty.

After almost a year of nothing working, the healer said to bring a white chicken. So her father, who was so desperate he would try anything, brought the man a white chicken. The healer killed the chicken in front of the girl, then rubbed her down with the chicken’s blood.

Her father, shown here pictured in his police uniform, didn’t know what to do, but he did know he couldn’t put her through that again.

He finally went to a medical doctor and was told that Joy had hydrocephalus. She was transferred to CURE’s hospital in Lusaka, Zambia.

Joy’s surgery lasted for eight hours, but afterwards she was slowly able to talk and, with some physical therapy, is able to walk again as well.

Her father feels so bad for all she went through.

Now, every day when he comes home from his job as a police officer, he gives her a high five and asks how she is doing. He said that without CURE Zambia, she would have died. He can’t thank them enough.

Joy’s Father, T.Africa, now spends his spare time traveling across the country running support groups for parents of disabled kids! Joy’s story has impacted more lives than he ever could have imagined!

Change the life of a child

Felista is now out of surgery and celebrating having two straight legs. Thanks to an operation, disability does not have to be part of this lively little girl’s future.

Great news! Cissy has received a life-saving operation at CURE Uganda!

Eight month old Cissy came to CURE last week, suffering acute water on the brain (also known as hydrocephalus). Left untreated, Cissy’s head would have enlarged further as more fluid built up around her brain. Her fever was intense and she was in a lot of pain. Without surgery, Cissy’s illness would probably have resulted in death.

Thanks to the generosity of CURE supporters and CURE Uganda surgeons, Cissy has received the care she needs to save her from this illness.

Cissy’s family is very poor and was unable to cover the cost of treatment.

It is not too late to donate to help this beautiful little girl. Now in recuperation, CURE doctors will continue to check-up on Cissy’s progress and provide all the follow-up care she needs in order to make a full recovery.

It cost in total £1,400 for Cissy’s life-saving operation and future follow-up care. Any contribution, no matter what size, will help hugely. It will literally change her life.

Click here to donate today

Cissy before surgery

Waiting for an operation at CURE

We promise to update this page with more news of Cissy as we follow her recovery. Thank you for giving Cissy a future.

]]> http://uk.cure.org/blog/2013/05/help-cure-cissy/feed/ 0 http://uk.cure.org/blog/2013/05/cure-superheroes/?source=rss http://uk.cure.org/blog/2013/05/cure-superheroes/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 08:49:12 +0000 Louise Hopkins http://cure.org/?p=79666 ]]> Last Sunday, a team of CURE Super Heroes took to London’s Regents Park and ran so children can walk!

The CURE team, which included several surgeons and paediatricians, ran 5 or 10 K whilst dressed up as Super Heroes. Together they have raised over £2,600 to provide operations for children with disabilities in the developing world. More children can now have their lives changed through surgery, enabling some to walk for the very first time in their lives. Thank you all for taking on this challenge on behalf of these children!

After receiving life-saving neurosurgery yesterday morning, one-year old Roona is doing well.

Hydrocephalus (‘water on the brain’) caused Roona’s head to expand to 37 inches, three times its normal size. After terrific response from people throughout the world, Roona was admitted to a first-world Indian hospital. Doctors began to drain the fluid in Roona’s skull last week and yesterday’s surgery sought to remove the excess skin at the back of her head as her skull shrinks.

Treatment has been going well and Roona’s head has already shrunk by nearly a third, to 29 inches. She is awaiting a further operation next week, when a shunt will be fitted to drain more of the excess fluid.

Roona’s dad earns less than £2 a day and was unable to pay for medical care to save his daughter’s life. Sadly, this is the case for 310,000 families in the developing world, where hydrocephalus is most prevalent.

CURE provides operations for children like Roona, regardless of ability to pay. To find out more about this illness go to uk.cure.org/hydrocephalus/

Thank you to everyone who responded to Roona’s story. Your support is helping CURE save lives.

When Tom was just a few month’s old, he started to get very sick. His eyes were unstable, he could not see and he did not respond to his mother’s voice. Tom’s head expanded in size and he was in a lot of pain.

Very worried about her son, Tom’s mother brought Tom to CURE Uganda. Here she immediately met other mother’s all cradling children suffering as Tom was.

Seeing all these joyful faces brought great comfort to Tom’s mother: she was not alone and there was hope that her baby boy could be healed.

Tom immediately received a life-saving operation at CURE, draining the fluid from his brain and treating the infection. Today Tom is well, happy and enjoying his childhood. Thanks to CURE, Tom has great promise for his future.

Patience is a beautiful, smiley 10-year old. However, if it wasn’t for CURE Uganda, Patience would not have lived passed her first birthday.

10 years ago Patience’s terrified parents arrived at CURE, carrying their tiny baby with a huge head, no idea what was wrong. Thankfully, they had come to the right hospital.

Patience had hydrocephalus, a condition where excessive amounts of fluid in the brain had caused her head to swell.

If the CURE hospital hadn’t been there, she would have probably died. If she had survived, she would have suffered from endless physical and mental problems.

Fortunately, at CURE Patience received the surgical intervention that saved her life.

Patience was one of the first patients to receive a life-changing operation at the CURE Uganda hospital. To date, over 5,000 children have been saved here. All these children are alive today because of the speciality care at CURE Uganda.

Patience is a living example of hope to other parents of children with hydrocephalus: there is a cure and each child has the hope of a full, promising life ahead of them.

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Uganda: click here to watch!

Roona is now in an excellent hospital in New Delhi and her treatment is being paid for by the Fortis Foundation of India.

Roona is being evaluated by a team of multi-disciplinary specialists comprising of Paediatric Neurologists, Psychologists, Cardiologists and Ophthalmologists to check her vital functions.

The child is under strict observation. She has sores at the base of her head, a deep chest infection and an abnormally high Total Leucocyte Count, diminishing her ability to fight infection. In addition, she is severely malnourished.

“While investigations are on, our first priority is to nurse the child to a level where she can tolerate interventions of any kind. This might take a few weeks, before we decide on the future line of treatment, said Dr. Sandeep Vaishya, Additional Director, Neurosurgery, Fortis Memorial Research Institute Gurgaon, the doctor in-charge of her case.”

You can read about her progress on a website that has been set up especially for her www.roonabegum.org.

CURE is not involved in the treatment of this particular child. However, at the CURE hospitals in Uganda and Zambia we regularly see children like Roona, and whose families are unable to pay for their surgery. It is only thanks to the compassion and the generosity of our donors that we are able to save their lives.

If you would like to help save a child just like Roona then we would be so very grateful for your support.

Click here to donate today.

Thank you again for your warm support, it is very much appreciated.