President Uhuru Kenyatta has come to the rescue of five-year-old Ethan Macharia who made headlines two weeks ago after penning an emotional letter he wrote from India where he was stuck with his mother unable to get treatment.
On Friday, February 28, the Kenyan Ambassador to India Willy Bett informed the family that President Kenyatta had paid the boy’s full hospital bill, paving way for him to undergo a nerve simulator surgery (VNS) at the Forties Hospital India on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
“No words can explain my emotions right now and no words can express my gratitude to the President for his kind gesture. The last 16 months have been nothing but emotional turmoil for us and we are glad that with this surgery, Ethan will be able to lead a normal life like he was before and become who he wants to be,’’ said Ethan’s mother, Veronica Njeri.
In November 2018, Ethan fell head-first from a flight of stairs while playing, critically damaging his head.
He soon developed violent seizures that further worsened his situation resulting in grave bodily harm.
Ethan’s life was completely altered and he was unable to resume school because of the frequent number of violent seizures he gets in a day. He also lost most of his cognitive abilities.
According to doctors in India, VNS surgery is important for Ethan because their attempts to control the multiple seizures using multiple drugs have failed.
This is an option in only a subgroup of pharmacoresistant patients, where an epileptogenic focus is localized and amenable to surgical intervention.
In conventional vagus nerve stimulation, a device will be surgically implanted under the skin on Ethan’s chest, and a wire is threaded under his skin connecting the device to the left vagus nerve.
When activated, the device sends electrical signals along the left vagus nerve to the brainstem, which then sends signals to certain areas in his brain.
In a letter titled “Dear Mr. President,” the boy appealed to President Kenyatta and well-wishers to help raise Sh3.5 million to facilitate his surgery for brain injuries.
