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TIN ZAR MAW - 4 Years Old

Tin Zar Maw is four years old, born in Maw La Myaing in Mon State and is currently living at Mae Tao Clinic with her grandmother. Her mother is 18 years old, her father is 23 years old, and neither is able to work. Her mother has another 3 year old daughter to take care of and her father is deaf mute, therefore the whole family is supported on Tin Zar Maw’s grandfather’s income alone. Her grandfather is 53 years old and travels around digging wells in villages that have no water supply. He earns 15,000  kyat ($18) for each well, and each well takes 8-10 days to complete. Income is irregular dependent on when he can get work.

This is Tin Zar Maw’s first visit to Mae Tao Clinic and she has been here 8 days since being admitted to inpatients. When she was 3 years old, her family began noticing that she was finding it difficult to breathe; she was coughing a lot and got very tired quickly after any sort of physical exertion. She frequently   develops fevers.

Her family took her to a hospital in Maw La Myaing, which she visited 4 different times. She was given medicine for respiratory infection in tablet and IV form, but these had no effect and her condition continued to worsen. She was admitted to the hospital for one week, which cost the family 100,000 kyat ($120). Other one day trips to the same hospital have cost 10,000 kyat ($12) each. This put huge financial strain on the family, and they were eventually told that Tin Zar Maw had a heart problem and they would not be able to afford the treatment.

Tin Zar Maw’s family heard about Mae Tao Clinic through friends and family and decided to travel the 10 hours by bus to the Thai border to try and get Tin Zar Maw the treatment she needs. This journey alone cost 6,000 kyat ($7) and it took the family nearly 2 months to save the money to make this journey possible.

Since arriving at Mae Tao Clinic, Tin Zar Maw has been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that will need surgery to put right so that she will have any chance of a normal life. It is suspected that she has a hole in her heart between the left and right ventricles which will need to be closed up with open heart surgery. This will need to be performed in Chiang Mai, as there are not the facilities for this kind of surgery in Mae Sot, and the family can afford neither the journey to Chiang Mai, nor the treatment costs. If BCMF cannot fund her treatment, she will not survive long. Comparatively, if she has the surgery, there is every chance that she will lead a normal life.
   
At the moment, Tin Zar Maw cannot play with friends. She has been taken care of by her grandmother since she was 8 months old. Her grandfather is unable to work when Tin Zar Maw gets sick as he worries about his granddaughter and stays home to help take care of her. Her family is very worried about her and her grandmother told me that she just wants her grand daughter to get better so she can go to school, play with her friends and have a normal life.

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