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Tai Mar Win – 19 years old

Deformed upper leg bone (due to an untreated fracture)

When Tai Mar Win entered Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) she wasn’t able to use her right leg and only had one crutch to move around. This crutch was made by the carpenter in their village in Burma. Therefore Tai Mar Win could only move around the clinic when her mother is beside her to function as her second ‘crutch’.

It was a 2 day travel to MTC and it cost them 12 us dollar to get here. Her whole extended family contributed and they managed to save some for living expenses in Mae Sot. The costs of living are much higher here than in Burma and soon they ran out of money. Fortunately MTC provides food and shelter for patients and they live on the premises right now.

Both her parents work on other people’s farms and they earn just enough support the family. Luckily Tai Mar Win has one brother who is old enough to work, while two other brothers can go to school. Because of Tai Mar Win’s condition, she is not able to either do work or go to school, she is confined to her house and on rare occasions the market.

3 years ago Tai Mar Win’s upper leg swelled up and was very painful. After a while the swelling got less and she tried to walk again, but she fell down on the ground and fractured her upper hip bone. It could have been a bone infection and loss of bone density, which could have resulted in fracturing her leg.  Tai Mar Win’s leg became very swollen and infected. They consulted traditional medicine and according to Daw Aye, Tai Mar Win’s mother, and Tai Mar Win herself, this person was able to treat the infection.

Although the infection was treated, the bone was still fractured, but they didn’t have any money to get treatment for her. This meant that Tai Mar Win has been in constant moderate pain and practically immobile for the last three years. Tai Mar Win often feels sad she can’t even go out of the house and socialise with other people. The last couple of months the pain increased and a neighbour- who was a former patient- told them about the Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF). They decided to take the expensive drive to the clinic and right now she is in Chiang Mai to get a proper diagnosis to see what can be done.

Daw Aye worries a lot about her daughter and realizes that Tai Mar Win’s life will be extremely difficult if it can’t be treated. If BCMF is able to help her, the most important thing she wants to do is support her mother and father, because they took care of her for a long time now.