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SAR KYI baby - Born 14 August 2006

?Sar Kyi Baby was born 14 August 2006 at Mae Sot Hospital. Doctors soon realized that she could not feed and inserted a colostomy and a feeding tube, however she was still unable to digest any milk and had constant reflux. Unfortunately, Mae Sot Hospital does not have the equipment for further diagnostic testing. After days of unsuccessfully trying to feed Sar Kyi  the doctors at Mae Sot Hospital told Sar Kyi Baby’s mother, Sar Dar Kyi that she would need to be transferred to Chiang Mai for tests and possibly surgery. Without treatment Sar Kyi Baby would eventually die as she could not digest any food. Sar Kyi Baby’s mother knew she could not afford her baby’s hospital fees in Chiang Mai as Sar Kyi Baby’s father is a farmer in Karen State, Burma and sells corn and beans. He earns approximately 20,000Baht a year ($US530). Admission and surgery in Chiang Mai usually costs approximately 80-150,000Baht US$2120- $3,975).

Sar Kyi Baby’s mother tried to look after her daughter the best she could but she would have to cross the border back to Burma each night. Every morning she would pay the 80Baht ($2.50) to come back into Thailand to be by her daughter’s bedside to hold the oxygen mask to her face, but she knew she needed financial assistance. When Sar Kyi Baby was 14 days old her mother came to Mae Tao Clinic in a desperate attempt to find someone to help her. Staff from the Burma Children Medical Fund visited Sar Kyi Baby in Mae Sot Hospital the next day and agreed to take the case on. Mae Sot Hospital generously funded an ambulance to transfer Sar Kyi Baby to Chang Mai Hospital when she was 16 days old.

Sar Kyi Baby is currently in Chiang Mai Hospital and has been diagnosed with a fistula in her esophagus and an imperforated anus. This explains why Sar Kyi Baby cannot pass stool or keep any food down. Both these conditions can be corrected with surgery. Firstly, doctors will correct the fistula by cutting her esophagus and removing the part of the esophagus with the fistula and then rejoining the esophagus. After she recovers from this surgery she will then undergo surgery to recreate an anus and close her colostomy. This will correct her digestive problems. However, Sar Kyi Baby’s problems do not end here. 

Unfortunately, the doctors suspected that Sar Kyi Baby had a weak heart and performed a Cardiac Cathertization on 30 August 2006. Sar Kyi Baby has been diagnosed with a Ventrical Septal Defect, commonly known as a hole in the heart. This is extremely bad news for Sar Kyi Baby and her family. Not only will she need to undergo 3 surgical procedures for her digestive tract but she will now also have to undergo cardiac surgery.

Urgent funding is needed to enable these life saving operations to be performed. It is difficult to estimate the costs of hospitalization and surgery at this early stage due the complicated nature of the case; however a very approximate estimation is around 200,000 Thai Baht ($6330).

Child’s Dream have kindly agreed to sponsor Sar Kyi Baby’s surgery

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