A poor man in the northern province of Bac Giang, who has already lost three sons to thalassemia, is now trying to save his two remaining sons from the same disease.
The blood disease killed three sons and continues threatening his remaining sons
Hoang Van Mao from Luc Ngan District’s Xa Ly Commune, is now taking care of his two sons at the Central Institute for Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Hanoi.
The man, who has an austere face can only look down at his shoes while his rugged hands hold the chair firmly as if to avoid falling over. When anyone asks about the condition of his sons, he breaks down immediately.
He said, “I can’t hold back my tears when I think of my three sons who died at this hospital. They suffered serious pain and they looked at me and asked for help, but I couldn't do anything; I was completely powerless.”
He said that his first son, Hoang Van Quyet, was born in 1978 and died in 1982. The second son, Hoang Van Noi died at the age of two. When the third son was born, he and his wife did not name him, they just called him “baby” so he might escape the fate of his brothers, but the outcome for son number 3 was no different. He also died when he was two.
Over the past 15 years, the pain Mao has suffered at the deaths of his three sons has not diminished and what's more, when the two youngest sons Hoang Van Nhan and Hoang Van Kem were hospitalised, he knew that his all sons suffered from the same disease.
The couple’s income depends solely on farming, therefore, it's a financial burden for them to pay hospital fees for the remaining two sons, Nhan and Kem. These two boys were not as strong as their friends when they were small and due to the family's difficult financial situation, they had to leave school after finishing Grade 3 to help their parents.
When he first took Nhan to the hospital with acute liver and kidney failure, Mao knew nothing about his son’s disease until the doctor explained it to him.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Head of Hematology Ward of the institute,said, “I really feel pity for Mr. Mao’s family situation. He himself is an ethnic minority person; therefore, his awareness is not as good as a Kinh person and besides very few people, regardless of their ethnic heritage, recognise the symptoms of thalassemia, let alone how to take preventive measures against it.”
Mao asked the doctors to let him take his sons home to wait for death because his family couldn't afford any further treatment, Ha said, but the doctors advised him to leave them at the hospital to continue the treatment.
Mao is now faced with question of whether or not his two grandchildren, Nhan’s sons, will inherit the disease from their father.
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