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Ali Asghar Children's Hospital

Panah Children Charity • 12 July 2019

Panah has supported the following Projects:

Project III (2010): Treatment of newly born twins with a serious infection 

Most Paediatric hospitals are part funded by the government, but the majority of costs are borne by the patients. There are many people who do not have medical insurance and have difficulty making the remainder payment for any treatment their children may require. The costs for some treatments are very high running, into thousands of pounds, but in other cases, a few hundred pounds can save the life of a child. One such case was the newly-born twin girls, both of whom had a bacterial infection. The hospital’s procedure allows such patients with emergency needs to be treated, while a variety of donors try to eventually cover the cost of the hospital. However, the patient cannot be discharged until the outstanding amount has been cleared. More importantly, the cost of medication is not provided by the hospital, but is procured from the private sector. This means that no medication is administered until payment has been received. In this respect, payment for medication is more urgent to ensure timely treatment of the illness has been carried out.

The twin girls were born on 6th of August 2009 prematurely, when their mother’s water broke early. Within days both girls developed problems due to being premature and suffering from internal infection - one in her lungs and the other in her heart. The twins were admitted as an emergency case to Ali Asghar’s Hospital and were temporarily named 'Ghol 1' and 'Ghol 2'. 

Ghol 1 was suffering from immaturity of lungs (RDS) shallow breathing and lung infection. Ghol 2 suffered from immaturity of heart (PDA) as well as incorrect heart valve function and faint heart beats (FHR). 

Panah Children Charity and True Volunteers Foundation jointly covered the costs of both children's medication and operations and were hospitalised for 56 days. 

Ghol 1 was discharged and recovered well, but still required returning for regular check-ups. Ghol 2 was transferred to the “Rajaee” hospital for further a specialist heart operation. However, within days she developed internal infection again and was re-admitted to Ali Asghar Hospital. She has now recovered from this infection and has been discharged.

The parents of the twins were financially very poor and could not afford their children’s medication or treatment. They were first time parents. The father of the children worked at a brick-baking factory as a day labourer. However, he had a back-disc problem and was not able to lift and could only do light work. The mother worked as cleaner and washed clothes in other people’s homes. One of the grandfathers who also lived with them also needs to work to make ends meet for their day-to-day lives. The grandmother was frail and could not work, but stayed at home to look after the house. All the family lived in one room.
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