WHILE Karim Sulaiman enters Hospital Kuala Lumpur for the third cycle of his treatment for scleroderma, an extremely rare skin disease, infant Siti Aisya Syahreen Shahidan is pleading for whatever help we can give.
Karim, one time journalist with Harian Metro and who had also served Berita Harian in London, returned to HKL today to continue his treatment aimed at helping him return to normal life and claim his job as a serious journalist.
I spoke to his wife Hawa on the phone this afternoon. She sounded upbeat and reported that Karim's doctors are very encouraged by Karim's improvement. Scleroderma causes the patient's skin to tighten, making it difficult for the person to swallow, move and speak. Medical science is still trying to find a cure for the ailment.
Karim has been suffering for many years but his plight caught the attention of Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Latif Ahmad. HKL's skin specialist Puan Sri Soraya Tun Hussein has been helping Karim since he was referred to the HKL late last year.
He will be in HKL for about 5 days to finish the third cycle of medication. He was last admitted on Feb 26, but he developed some rashes and had fever, which forced the doctors to halt the treatment for a while. We know Karim is in good hands and continue to pray for his well-being.
Siti Aisya, meanwhile, is an infant suffering from Fraser Syndrome, a situation where her eyelids are fused together, fingers webbed, larynx partially shut and hearing impaired.
She needs about RM400 and RM500 a month for upkeep and her father is a self-employed. Blogger Jeff Ooi highlighted her case in his latest posting. He was earlier alerted to the ailment by two other junior bloggers.
If you can help, please contact Jeff Ooi at his website. If we chip in bit by bit, I'm sure we can help make a difference to her life!
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3 comments:
I wish Karim all he best! Gaining weight is a positive sign, usually.
Also (I'm no doctor, physician and have no medical/related scientific training whatsoever), weight gain can also mean that the skin will be stretched (and even grow to accommodate the increased mass) and if Karim doesn't feel more pain than he is feeling now, that's a good thing, right?
Although I don't know him well, I know that he used to be quite active in taking part in media cooking competition. He won a number of top prizes, at that, too.
Good luck, Karim!
Sekadar mampu berdoa.
Treatments
Main article: Stem cell treatments
Medical researchers believe that stem cell therapy has the potential to radically change the treatment of human disease. A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukaemia.[10]
In the future, medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a wider variety of diseases including cancer, parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, and muscle damage, amongst a number of other impairments and conditions.[11][12]
However, there still exists a great deal of social and scientific uncertainty surrounding stem cell research, which could possibly be overcome through public debate and future research.
Stem cells, however, are already used extensively in research, and some scientists do not see cell therapy as the first goal of the research, but see the investigation of stem cells as a goal worthy in itself. [13].
Controversy surrounding stem cell research
Main article: Stem cell controversy
There exists a widespread controversy over stem cell research that emanates from the techniques used in the creation and usage of stem cells.
Embryonic stem cell research is particularly controversial because, with the present state of technology, starting a stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo and/or therapeutic cloning. Opponents of the research argue that this practice is a slippery slope to reproductive cloning and tantamount to the instrumentalization of a human being.
Contrarily, some medical researchers in the field argue that it is necessary to pursue embryonic stem cell research because the resultant technologies are expected to have significant medical potential, and that the embryos used for research are only those meant for destruction anyway (as a product of invitro fertilisation).
This in turn, conflicts with opponents in the pro-life movement, who argue that an embryo is a human being and therefore entitled to dignity even if legally slated for destruction. The ensuing debate has prompted authorities around the world to seek regulatory frameworks and highlighted the fact that stem cell research represents a social and ethical challenge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem-cell_research
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