Toddler needs help as MCO drives couple up against the wall

 

Activist Azizul Rahman Ahmad Yusuf (second from left) and NGO members with Mohd Raly Alip and Sarina Nordin and their son, Mohd Sadiq Abdullah, at their home at Kampung Sakong Besar in Semporna, Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: A poor couple have their backs up against the wall not only to fend for themselves during the lockdown but also for their son who has a growth in the head.

Activist Azizul Rahman Ahmad Yusuf and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Komuniti As Salam and Patak-Patak stumbled on the couple’s case while doing charity work in Sabah’s east coast Semporna district recently.

Azizul, originally from Kuala Lumpur, said the parents told them Mohd Sadiq Abdullah, aged two-and-a-half years, had been suffering from the mysterious condition since he was three months old.

He said the father, Mohd Raly Alip, 29, is a daily wage earner working with a private contractor, while the mother, Sarina Nordin, 19, is a housewife.

“They are putting up in a house at Kampung Sakong Besar owned by Sarina’s father which is dilapidated. In total, 11 people live in the small house, so you can imagine the conditions,” he told FMT.

“The father can only earn an income if there’s work but money is scarce now during the movement control order. So, the family really needs help from the authorities and the public.”

The house in which the couple and their son are staying with eight others.

Azizul said the parents had been taking Sadiq to hospital since the problem started but with no child specialist in the district, no one was able to advise them on his condition and the kind of treatment needed.

“I am not a medical doctor, so I don’t dare say what’s wrong with him but suffice to say the parents can’t treat him in Semporna.”

He said the family had applied for welfare assistance but there had been no feedback from the department for about a year now.

“A doctor has scheduled the child to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in the neighbouring Tawau district but, generally, the districts in Sabah lack child specialists except for the state capital,” Azizul said.

“The family needs to bring the boy to Kota Kinabalu, or better still Kuala Lumpur, but being poor, they lack the means to do so. Maybe the government can consider helping them.”

He also said the parents needed money to buy essentials like food and milk powder.

The bare necessities inside the house.

A doctor told FMT that Sadiq’s condition may likely be due to hydrocephalus – an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid occurring within the brain.

The condition is caused by an imbalance between the amount of cerebrospinal fluid produced and how much is absorbed into the bloodstream.

However, the doctor said, the swelling in the head could also be caused by other factors but it could only be properly diagnosed by specialists.

Azizul, Komuniti As Salam and Patak-Patak are setting up an account for the family.

In the meantime, the public may contact Azizul at 012-302 8703, Habib Mohammad Faizal Habib (Komuniti As Salam) at 010-266 1551 or Abdul Wafi Muhadar at 013-902 8681 for further information. - FMT