Navigation

---

NAY TAT LYN 4 Years Old

Nay Tat Lyn is now 4 years old and lives with his grandparents. When he was three days old, his mother left him, saying that she could not look after him and left to live in a nearby town.
 
Nay Tat Lyn was not a well baby from the start. His belly was large from birth and continued to get bigger over the first days of his life. There was no sign of gas or stool. His Grandmother, Daw Shin had given birth herself to seven children and knew there was something seriously wrong. She took him to hospital in Tha Thon in Eastern Burma. Here she was told that the baby’s large bowel had not developed properly and because of this they needed to make another exit higher up; an urgent and life-saving operation.

Since then Nay Tat Lyn has been living with a colostomy just below his rib cage on the right side of his stomach. He feels the effects of his condition even at his young age. Other children tease him or stay away because of the smell from the colostomy bag. It is hard on the family too for the same reasons and because of all the washing and cleaning and constant care that Nay Tat Lyn requires.

Daw Shin took her grandson back to Tha Thon Hospital to see whether something could be done. There she was told he would have to go to Rangoon for the treatment. The cost was going to be far more than Daw Shin would see in her lifetime. Daw Shin works very hard every day, cutting wood, making it into bundles and taking it to sell in the local town. Nay Tat Lyn usually comes with her to collect and bundle the wood and play while she works. Her 60 year old husband cannot work. She makes around 400  ($0.50) a day. It is enough to buy sufficient rice for half a day for the family. I asked what they did on the day they could not afford to buy rice and she told me; ‘We make soup.’

Daw Shin is a fit and strong looking 52 year old woman. She would not give up easily. She borrowed 10,000 Kyat from 4 people in her village and with her grandson began the long journey to Dr. Cynthia’s Clinic in Thailand, the only free medical care available for people from Burma. She has 400 kyat left and says: ‘I do not know what I will do when this has gone.'

Nay Tat Lyn’s medical needs are beyond the scope of Mae Tao Clinic. The Clinic needs 60,000.00 Baht ($1900) to pay for Nay Tat Lyn and his grandmother’s transport to and accommodate in Chiang Mai for the investigations and surgery that are necessary. This is the only realistic way that Nay Tat Lyn will stand any chance of a normal life.

Child’s Dream have kindly agreed to sponsor Nay Tat Lyn’s surgery

---