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NAIROBI: She enjoys colouring in a sketch book provided at the children’s ward. Her favourite colour is purple. She begins every writing activity by jotting down her name. Esther is a seven-year-old girl. In March, she was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour (also known as nephroblastoma), a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children.
Esther is admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) where she has undergone surgery to remove the tumour and is on her eighth chemotherapy treatment after which she will be allowed to go home.
“I want to be a doctor so I can treat my father’s legs which ache all the time,” she told Health Watch.
Her mother Caroline Kimathi says the cancer diagnosis began after Esther fell on her stomach while playing with her peers. “She ran into the house saying she had fallen down. When the pain persisted, we rushed her to Karatina Hospital where a scan revealed a tumour in her stomach,” Caroline said Friday.
Conclusive results in Nyeri and later at KNH showed that the tumour was still in its early stages. Surgery was promptly done followed by chemotherapy treatment. The cancer diagnosis was unsettling for this family, especially because it was on their last born child. But the family is quick to say the pain was made more bearable by the hospital staff.
Caroline remains steadfast that her daughter’s treatment is a hurdle she will overcome, thanks to a great medical team and a supportive family. “I cried a lot but I later found strength in knowing that my child will get the best treatment,” she says adding that having the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover has eased the treatment costs for her family.
I believe she is healed, she says.
Esther Munyoro, the head of Pain and Palliative Care Unit at KNH, says parents must be carefully prepared before they are told that their young ones have cancer.
“We begin by looking at the information they initially have on cancer and take them through the diagnosis, treatment and management,” Dr Munyoro told Health Watch.
Dr Munyoro stressed the importance of roping in the children to understand their diagnosis and treatment by using art to explain medical facts. “We ask them to draw their feelings and seek to understand their future careers,” she says.
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