Acehnese boy owes life to mother's persistence<\/p>\n
Maggie Tiojakin, Contributor\/Boston. U.S.<\/p>\n
\"Alhamdullilah (Praise be to God)!\" shouted Miswar, 22, as she
\nsat with both hands covering her face, tears brimming in her
\neyes.<\/p>\n
Her husband, Mahfud, 28, rested his elbows on his knees, his
\nhead was bent toward his chest. A deep, quiet smile sprung from
\nhis face. \"Alhamdullilah,\" he said, following his wife,
\nacknowledging an unexpected miracle.<\/p>\n
Just a few minutes beforehand, Dr. Daniel Ryan, a top surgeon
\nat Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, had come to
\ndeliver the news: Your son's surgery went well, and we
\nsuccessfully removed the entire tumor from his liver.
\nCongratulations.\"<\/p>\n
Fadhil Muammar is a 17-month-old boy who was flown all the way
\nfrom Banda Aceh to Boston, U.S. to receive treatment a few months
\nafter the tsunami struck his hometown in December. They arrived
\nin Boston on March 19.<\/p>\n
Natives of Aceh, both Miswar and Mahfud had gone the last mile
\nin an effort to cure Fadhil's disease -- if only they could find
\nout what it was. From the age of seven months, Fadhil's abdomen
\nhad begun to show signs of unnatural swelling.<\/p>\n
Eventually, his stomach looked more and more distended. At
\nnight, he often suffered from seizures and high fevers that sent
\nhis parents into a panic.<\/p>\n
The couple then attempted to see a number of doctors in
\nJakarta, hoping they would obtain more information, but each
\ndoctor gave them a different diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\"Some said it was cancer, others said it was body waste,\"
\nreflected Mahfud. \"And then there were those who simply shrugged
\nand had no idea what it was. So we weren't convinced,\" he said,
\nwistfully.<\/p>\n
Although Fadhil remained an active child, his parents remained
\nconcerned. \"The seizures and fevers scared us,\" said Miswar,
\nremembering nights when she would stay awake for fear of her
\nchild's condition. \"The muscles in his abdomen would get so tight
\nhe could not breathe,\" she said.<\/p>\n
For some time, the couple traveled back and forth between Aceh
\nand Jakarta in their mission to cure Fadhil -- all of which
\nproved to be fruitless. Then, disaster struck.<\/p>\n
They lost their home and everything they had built together.
\nIt was an exceptionally devastating event, followed by highly
\ndisruptive living arrangements.<\/p>\n
Both Mahfud and Miswar, like hundreds of thousands of other
\nAcehnese, believed that all hope was lost. Their home was ruined,
\njobs were impossible to find and food was scarce. Their basic
\ndaily needs were barely met, and the only comfort they had was
\nthe outpouring of assistance that had arrived in Banda Aceh in
\nthe wake of the disaster.<\/p>\n
One such arrival was a relief mission launched by Project
\nHOPE, a joint effort between a non-governmental organization and
\nthe U.S. Navy, in which hundreds of foreign medical personnel had
\nvolunteered to help tsunami survivors on the hospital ship USNS
\nMercy.<\/p>\n
Fadhil had injured his head while trying to escape the rush of
\nwater, which, later on, led to an infection. With her husband
\nliving in Jakarta (after the tsunami) Miswar was accompanied by
\nher younger sibling to seek help at the Zainal Abidin Hospital,
\none of the few still running in Banda Aceh.<\/p>\n
\"After they gave Fadhil antibiotics for his head wound, the
\nGerman doctors asked me what was wrong with his stomach,\" said
\nMiswar. \"I told them, through an interpreter, that I didn't
\nknow.\"<\/p>\n
It took a mere few hours for the doctors to figure out what
\nshe had been trying to understand for almost a year. There was a
\ntumor attached to Fadhil's liver. It was benign. However, given
\nenough time, it would become a threat to his life.<\/p>\n
Miswar and Fadhil were immediately flown to the USNS Mercy,
\nwhich had dropped anchor off the Aceh coast, for more tests. The
\nship was so huge Miswar had a hard time adjusting to it.<\/p>\n
On the ship, Miswar met medical volunteers from MGH, to whom
\nshe ended up owing her son's life. And one, in particular, to
\nwhom she feels indebted for making her dreams come true. \"What he
\nhas is a mesenchymal hamartoma -- a liver mass,\" said Vicki
\nNoble, M.D., an emergency medical doctor at MGH, who had been on
\nthe rescue ship earlier in March. \"Lucky for Fadhil, it's in an
\narea of the liver that is dissectable.\"<\/p>\n
Because the surgeons on board felt that the ship was ill-
\nequipped for the type of surgery he needed, the medical staff
\nunanimously decided that it would be best for Fadhil to undergo
\nthe surgery elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Miswar, who has the reputation of being a resilient mother,
\ntirelessly pleaded for doctors to save her son's life. She
\nrefused when they tried to refer Fadhil to Jakarta for medical
\ncare, reasoning that she had already gone to most of the
\nhospitals there. So the doctors told her that they would try and
\nfind another way to help her son.<\/p>\n
When Miswar was discharged from the ship with a promise she
\nwasn't sure they could keep, she felt as though she had come back
\nempty-handed from a life-long battle. She was going to accept her
\nson's fate as it was handed to her.<\/p>\n
Two days later, fate came knocking on Miswar's door. Noble,
\nwho was primarily in charge of patients on the ship, disembarked
\nwith Roger Aruan, the interpreter, to inform her that a hospital
\nin Boston would take on her son's case if she was willing to take
\nhim all the way to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Funding would be borne entirely by Ray Tye Medical Foundation,
\nwhich was unavailable for contact at the time this article was
\nwritten.<\/p>\n
\"I would have gone anywhere [the doctors] wanted me to go, if
\nit meant my son was going to be healthy,\" said Miswar, during an
\ninterview at the family's temporary housing in the Beacon Hill
\narea of Boston. \"I had nothing else to lose.\"<\/p>\n
Yet, one problem still loomed large: they had three days to
\nprocess the requisite paperwork before the ship was scheduled to
\nreturn to the U.S.<\/p>\n
\"We got the passports done within a day, and we obtained visas
\nfor all three family members within the next two days,\" said
\nRoger, during an online interview.<\/p>\n
\"There was a lot of running around,\" said Mahfud, chuckling at
\nthe experience. \"At one point, we were physically chasing after
\nthe helicopter that was going to bring us back to the ship.\"<\/p>\n
Miswar, who feels overwhelmed at the kindness of strangers,
\noften refers to Noble as the \"angel\" who saved her son -- a title
\nthat Noble repeatedly denied in a humble manner. Mahfud, a more
\nreserved man, happily agrees with his wife.<\/p>\n
\"I cannot even begin to thank [the doctors and volunteers],\"
\nsaid Miswar, standing by her son's bed, her fingers reaching out
\nto his face. Then, she glanced at Noble, who stood in the corner
\nof the room.<\/p>\n
Noble approached Miswar and gave her a warm hug. \"It wouldn't
\nhave happened without Miswar's persistence,\" said Noble.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was chance, perhaps fate: Some might even say it
\nwas meant to be. For Fadhil's immediate family and relatives back
\nhome, it was simply a miracle.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/acehnese-boy-owes-life-to-mothers-persistence-1447893297",
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