Our Correspondent
Imphal, August 7 (EMN): Barely two months after Roona Begum died at the age of five in Tripura due to Hydrocephalus, a child with similar condition however opposite gender and younger age has been found in the border remote village of Govajang bordering Myanmar in Manipur’s newly created district Tengnoupal.
The six months old toddler Seiminsang Kipgen alias Mimin was born healthy to a daily wage earner couples Lhunkhomang Kipgen and Nengneithem Kipgen of Govajang village on 26 January this year however the child later suffered from Hydrocephalus when the he turned one month. Govajang, a border village having a population of about 300 villagers is connected with one and only muddy and motorable road with Moreh, the popular commercial border town, 110 km south of Imphal. Most of the villagers’ in Govajang are daily labourers.
The discovery of six months old child Seiminsang Kipgen came to light when a team of WhatsApp group named Genhison visited the family on August 4 and donated a sum of Rs. 20,000 to the family. Robert Kipgen, administrator of WhatsApp group told this reporter that they visited the family to help by contributing money.
The child’s mother (Nengneithem) narrated that Mimin’s head started growing bigger with shockingly increased to the weight to 11 Kg. “Now the boy’s weight is 15 Kg in which the head alone weighs 10 Kg”, he added.
“Due to the enlargement of the head, Minin could not crawl, sit up or roll over and the skin of his head has stretched out pulling his eyelids over his eyes”. She said that they had taken the child to the hospitals in Moreh and in Tamu, a border town of Myanmar but they were advised to take him to a better equipped hospital which is not affordable for them.
They family once tried to visit Imphal but they cancelled the trip after their vehicle met an accident when their child was three months old. But this time the family may at least try to visit Imphal and find ways for successful operations with public support, according to Robert who feels sympathy when they saw tears flows out of child’s eye at that young age. “The child look mature at some point of time when his tears flows down,” he narrated.
According to experts, hydrocephalus is a rare condition where the cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain, causing extreme swelling and a build-up of pressure. It is more common among infants and older adults. The condition is caused by overproduction, obstruction or lack of absorption of the cerebral fluid in the brain.
The poor family, who cannot afford the treatment of their youngest child among the sibling of six, want him to live healthy like others and have a belief in a ‘miracle’ could happen only with the help of generous people.
