Little girl to have bone marrow transplant

A four-year-old girl in Thua Thien-Hue Province will have a chance to have bone marrow transplant operation and fight against cancer thanks to the support from the community.

A four-year-old girl in Thua Thien-Hue Province will have a chance to have bone marrow transplant operation and fight against cancer thanks to the support from the community.

  

Nguyen Hoang Ngoc Han suffers from neuroblastoma

Nguyen Hoang Ngoc Han suffers from neuroblastoma, cancer that develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body, when she was only two years old. Her family worried that chemotherapy would quickly destroy her health so they brought her home and used herbal medicines to treat her. But six months later, Han's health got worse and the tumour in her belly spread to her eyes. Han already lost her left eye.

Doctors said Han needs a bone marrow transplant. A special medicine will be used to extract healthy stem cells. Afterwards, the rest of the stem cell will be destroyed and the extracted stem cell will be re-implanted into Han.

Han's family couldn't afford the cost of a bone marrow transplant operation in HCM City which is around VND1bn (USD43,000) to VND2bn. Fortunately, according to Hue Central Hospital, a Japanese organisation has supported them with the necessary equipment so the cost will be reduced to VND100m to VND200m. Even then, it is still a huge amount of money for Han's family.

  

Han's family receives the donation

On November 27, the representative of Dantri Newspaper arrived at Hue Central Hospital and transferred VND106,760,000 of donation to Han's family. Dr Hoang Thi Lan Huong, deputy director of Hue Central Hospital and Dr Tran Kiem Bao, director of the Paediatric Centre also visited Han.

Nguyen Thi Hue, Han's mother said she was very moved. "On behalf of my whole family, I want to thank everyone for helping us. We now can believe in miracle and hope that she will have a successful bone marrow transplant," she said.

Chau Van Ha, deputy director of Paediatric Centre said Han would be their first patient who uses the machine. But before the transplant, her condition suddenly worsened and she had to take chemotherapy. The hospital will have to check her health again before starting the transplant. This will also be the first child bone marrow transplant operation done in Thua Thien-Hue Province.