This archive report was first published on 5 August 2020.
A mother's selfless act ¶
On Easter Monday in 2018, Damas Mbinya and her husband George Gathogo welcomed their second-born child, Baby Emmanuel Gathogo, with great excitement. However, their joy was short-lived as they soon discovered that their baby was born with a life-threatening condition, biliary atresia.
Biliary atresia is a condition in infants where the bile ducts outside and inside the liver are scarred and blocked, leading to liver enzyme numbers continuing to rise. The only treatment option left for Baby Emmanuel was a liver transplant, which came with a hefty price tag of Sh4.2 million.
Despite the financial burden, Damas and her husband were determined to save their baby. They approached the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), but unfortunately, they would only pay Sh500,000. The couple then turned to their community, friends, and relatives for help, organizing a fundraising campaign to cover the remaining Sh3.7 million deficit.
However, they still fell short of the target, with a deficit of almost Sh1.8 million. Left with no other option, they sold off some property to raise the remaining funds. In a remarkable display of love and sacrifice, Damas decided to donate a third of her liver to her son in a 13-hour surgery at India Max hospital on June 25, 2019.
Emmanuel's recovery has been smooth, but getting his medication has been a challenge for the parents. Locally, they could not get the drug, Cellcept in syrup form, and had to get it from India. The family is now seeking support from well-wishers who would want to sponsor them through this journey as it has exhausted them financially.
