Little Cautious needs help
Seven month old Cautious is not a bubbly child like most babies are at her age. She is sick. Her mother Dorica Polomelo is scared she can lose her beautiful baby daughter anytime.
Cautious was born with a gap in her heart and the only hope of her survival is in India and this is pain and agony for her parents.
She cannot afford to pay for the trip let alone the medical bills.
“She was born on November 6, 2017 and only two weekends later, I discovered that she was coughing a lot and had stomachache,” Dorica explains her struggle with her baby.
“It was later that I was told by Doctors that my child has a hole in her heart and needed urgent heart surgery,” said Dorica, looking forlorn and hopeless.
Cautious is among the many poor children in Malawi who are born with life threatening birth defects and end up dying ecause they cannot access medical care locally.
These children also die when the children of those with money or government connections easily get assisted by the State instantly while the many like Cautious’s mother have to pray that a good Samaritan comes through to help.
“By now, Cautious should have been able to sit but she can’t. She cannot suck the milk on her own but has to give her the breast milk in some cup. When she tries to breastfeed, she coughs a lot. Again she cannot eat anything apart from the milk,” she said.
Every time Dorica looks her daughter, she wonders for how long she will be seeing her daughter. But she has picked herself up now and embarked on a fundraising exercise though she knows it will be tough.
Hospital staff are yet to tell her exactly how much she needs.
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