14-year-old George has been coming and going in Makareio Hospital for five years. Every two weeks he has to visit the hospital to get the medicine that keeps him alive.
The young patient suffers from a rare autoimmune syndrome, the atypical hemolytic uraemic syndrome. On Wednesday, George received the first dose of the third generation drug "Ultomiris", a very expensive drug from America, which must be taken every eight weeks and not every two, as has happened until today!
His father, Stefanos Andreou, describes the battle his son has been fighting in recent years and how this medicine gives him a better quality of life.
"He appeared when he was 9 and a half years old and suddenly this syndrome destroyed his two kidneys. "This autoimmune syndrome is aggressive towards its own organism, that is, its own organism attacks its own organism."
George was intubated, repressed, went through 14 plasmapheresis sessions to which he did not respond and finally, with the very important guidance of the Director of the Pediatric Clinic of Makareio, Dr. Abraham Elias, was approved and receives this drug that gives him the right to have a normal life and continue to play football.
"If this medicine did not exist, the baby would continue to have dialysis, if he did not 'leave', the medicine would save him." typically states his father.
"Leaving here the baby has a normal life, his kidneys are back, everything is fine."
"This medicine helps children to a great extent, in a percentage of over 95% it can help the child. We had two other children before the medicine who stayed in the final stage of kidney failure and needed a kidney transplant, while this medicine helps the children a lot to get their kidney function back to normal. For the last five years, the baby has been coming to the hospital every two weeks, sitting for about four hours to get the medicine and go home. ”
"With the current data, the treatment is for life, unless our knowledge is enriched and we stop the drug because they are isolated cases, they are rare cases and we do not have the experience", the doctor continues.
Mr. Andreou expresses his warm thanks to the staff of Makareio Hospital but also to the Ministry of Health.
"I want to thank you for the great zeal here at Makareio Hospital, especially from Mr. Abraham, in the first days I can say that he stayed in Makareio, he did not leave even at night. I stayed until we saw a difference in the baby. I thank both the nurses and the Ministry for the very expensive medicine which is also from the money of the whole world. ”
Source: alphanews