A determined Johannesburg grandmother started on a world-wide search for help to both save her grandson’s sight and life. When baby Vaughn was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, his grandmother was allegedly told that both his eyes should be removed.
But Vaughn’s grandmother refused to listen to the ophthalmic surgeon, and instead dispatched urgent emails looking for a doctor who could treat her grandson. She found Dr Brenda Gallie at the Toronto Children’s Hospital. Dr Gallie is the head of retinoblastoma research in Canada.
In this news story an email from Dr Galli to Vaughn’s grandmother sent in March this year outlines the success of chemotherapy treatment to date on Vaughn’s eye cancer. It appears his life is not under threat, and he will retain some functional vision.
Is this another signal for the need to establish a network of retinoblastoma experts on a global scale to help fight this cancer in our developing countries? And does it also highlight the lack of appropriate medical treatment in these countries, as well as the absence of a full understanding of the types of treatments available to cure this disease? Money, of course, and the cost of treatment is always an issue. Many families cannot pay for the necessary treatment.
With World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week coming up from May 13 to 19, this story is a timely reminder of what needs to be done towards eliminating both the loss of sight and life through this curable cancer.
Posted in Eye Cancer, Retinoblastoma. Permalink for this post: permalink.
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