LITTLE ALLA’S VISION DEPENDS ON MONEY

The eyesight of a blind girl born in the family of a farmer could be restored if they collect enough money for the surgery.

The vision of two-year-old Alla depends on us.

 A couple of days ago it was the birthday of little Alla, shown in the photo above. She turned two. Usually children of that age like running about, making mischief, perhaps curiously inspecting various objects in the house. But Alla has been deprived of these pleasures because of a lack of eyesight. According to her grandmother, Alvard Sahakyan, the blind child is afraid to walk; she only walks in the house with a vice-like grip on the hands of relatives.  When she’s thirsty, she can’t let them know that she wants some water, because she has no idea what object or direction to point to. “It’s very hard both for the child and for us all; she cries all the time, and we can do nothing, but try and guess what she wants”.

According to relatives, Alla wasn’t blind at birth. “She was born at the Armenia medical centre. As the child was born prematurely, after a six month pregnancy, she stayed at the hospital under the care of doctors for a month. For the first 15 days, they kept her in a special incubator, as she was underweight – 1.18 kg. Before she left the hospital, the doctors assured us that the child was a real miracle – she was healthy and we could take her home. Later, during a medical examination we happened to discover that our baby was blind. We had taken her to get an inoculation against diphtheria and after that she had a fever and her eyelids began to flutter. We took her to Metsamor hospital in the Armavir region; we learnt the truth there and lost heart immediately.”

All of Armenia’s well-known ophthalmologists have examined Alla. “Even Malayan and Shakaryan gave us no hope; they said that operations like this are not performed in our country and we need to take her to St. Petersburg.  They said that we had better do it very quickly, because after the age of ten months, the operation might not help at all.” The problem is that Alla was born in the village of Hoktember in the region of Armavir, in an ordinary farmer’s family barely making ends meet. Winemaking is the only source of income for her parents. This year’s harvest was only 1.5 tonnes and sold for 190 thousand AMD, 25 thousand of which was spent on transportation; the remaining 165 thousand is supposed to cover land, water, house, clothes and food expenses as well as help prepare for the winter. An operation in St. Petersburg would cost Alla’s family 4-5 thousand dollars. When she was first operated on both eyes at the age of 10 months, the parents managed to gather the whole sum from here and there – relatives and donations. But to return the light to her eyes, she needs 4-5 operations like the first one. The doctors guarantee that surgery will be effective, but it’s necessary that all the operations are done at the proper age intervals. According to St. Petersburg’s chief ophthalmologist’s prescription, Alla’s next surgery should take place in November, that’s to say in a month, and the child’s parents have no idea to whom they can turn in order to gather the sum for this operation. She is the firstborn in the family and the first grandchild, and it’s hard to put up with the thought that she won’t be able to see her family and the world surrounding her, especially when the possibility exists to restore her vision. “If she were born blind, we’d console ourselves that God has created her like that, but in the judgment of the specialists of St. Petersburg hospital and our ophthalmologists her vision was harmed at the Republican Hospital, the lights of the incubator for underweight children have damaged her retinal fundus.”

As expected, the head of Armenia medical centre has denied that they are to blame for the baby’s loss of eyesight, stating that the child was born blind. If that were the case, it remains unclear why the doctors of Republican Hospital discharged the child from the hospital with an evaluation of the child\’s health as excellent and without stating any problems with her eyesight. When a child is born, a mandatory medical examination must be done to have a clear understanding of the child\’s health, instead of dismissing the parents by saying “your child was born blind” months after the birth.

At the moment Alla’s relatives are busy with raising money for her surgery and, because proving that the Armenia medical centre wrong will not help their child, they are not challenging the hospital’s medical staff.

For the information of those interested, they have established an account for Alla in the Armavir branch of ArmEconomBank in the name of Alvard Sahakyan; the account number is 163108014917. Alla’s parents hope that there will be benefactors who will help Alla come into the world of colours even with a small amount of money. The girl’s grandma assures us that whoever hears how Alla sings will not be able to stay indifferent towards her health and future.