Supporting Sagar Dorji
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Background
Thank you for visiting Sagar’s page.
Sagar Dorji is a 5 year old boy from Assam, India.
Sagar, born to a family of illiterate daily wage labourers was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in July 2016 which caused him to suffer severe and prolonged haemorrhaging to both his eyes causing him severe pain and distress.
Sagar's parents were unable to afford the12,000 INR (£144) for basic medical tests and the severe bleeding in his eyes continued for some time before leukaemia was finally diagnosed.
Due to the critical condition of Sagar, the Assam government stepped in and covered the cost of transferring Sagar to Narayana Health City in Bangalore for advanced treatment. Sagar had intense chemotherapy and underwent a bone marrow transplant (his 9 year old sister Iradevi was his donor). Sargar has responded well to treatment, however, despite all best efforts to save his eyesight, we were informed In Jan17' that Sagar's optic nerves were too severely damaged and a cornea transplant to restore sight would not be going ahead. We were all devastated by this news as Sagar had so courageously fought his cancer battle.
I first heard about Sagar's situation through the British media and felt touched by Sagar’s situation. It was truly heartbreaking to see this child in so much pain and I was unable to comprehend how he was able to cope for so long without any treatment at all. Having suffered from several painful eye infections myself, I am aware of how lucky I was to receive immediate attention from Moorfields eye hospital.
I wanted to help Sagar and his family and was able to track down the father's details by using various social media sources. My cousin who speaks Hindi then reached out to the family on my behalf in October 2016 to offer assistance. We kept in regular contact and in February 17 I travelled to Bangalore to meet with Sagar and his family. I have then met them several times on subsequent visits and I have become very close to them. My family in India have all met Sagar and his family and are in regular contact.
Given that we were informed that the cornea transplant was not going ahead. Sagar’s parents decided to move back to Assam with the intention of enrolling Sagar in blind school. I collected his medical eye records and I promised the parents that I would reach out to world leading specialists for a second opinion. Following up further it seemed the general consensus amongst the specialists was that a cornea transplant would not work and the post-operative care too onerous on the parents to manage.
I continued with my search and reached out to one of the leading ophthalmologists in the world who is based in India, the hospital asked to see Sagar personally in order for them to carry out further investigation. I arranged for the family to travel from Assam to South India and following further tests the left eye showed that the optic nerve was functioning within normal ranges and the right eye showed some light perception although was within abnormal range. We were delighted by this news and for the first time in months felt that we had real hope.
The hospital agreed to operate to give Sagar a chance, despite the many challenges involved. Namely the extent of the damage to the eye, the usual complications involved in carrying out cornea transplants in children and the intensive post-operative care that is required. The transplant went ahead in early July (I covered the cost of the cornea transplant). Following the operation Sagar has healed better than expected and both the cornea and retina are in good shape. Sagar now has perception of light and has been given high prescription glasses to encourage his senses to see again. This will be a slow process given Sagar has been blind for a year, however we all hopeful that he will get some vison back given the success of the transplant. It will be challenging but we remain hopeful.
We are very grateful to the family of the young man from Hyderabhad who donated their son’s cornea to Sagar upon him passing.
Our Goal
We are raising additional funding to cover:
- visual rehabiliation for Sagar
- on going medical treatment for cancer
- eye check ups
- fees to cover schooling
- basic living expenses
We are hoping that if we can raise additional funding we will use this to arrange for some1 day eye camps in Assam (Sagar’s home state) to help other children with vision problems.
Everyone who meets Sagar is touched by his happy disposition and friendly nature. All of Sagar's doctors note how intelligent he is.
Despite all the cruel challenges that have come Sagar's way in the last year he has never lost his capacity to smile and his will to live is truly inspirational.
Our awareness to Sargar's ill health came about via the British media:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3733318/Tragedy-little-boy-eyes-bleed-POP-Mystery-condition-left-four-year-old-blind-doctors-baffled.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4105436/Boy-4-cured-leukaemia-caused-eyes-bleed-POP-story-attracted-attention-fundraisers.html
https://thelogicalindian.com/health/assam-boy-bleeding-eyes/
Sagar received treatment at the following hospital in Bangalore:
Mazmudar Shaw Medical centre
Department of Heamatology - Oncology
# 258/ A, Bommasandra industrial area
Anekal Taluk
Bangalore - 560099
Karnataka
India
Thank you to all those who have already kindly donated and for all the kind messages of support. It is greatly appreciated by us all.
Thanks for spreading the message!
*Update - 29.09.17 - Sagar underwent a Tarsorrhaphy last week . This is a surgical procedure whereby the eyelids are partially sewn together to narrow the eyelid opening, this was carried out to protect the cornea from dryness post corneal graft. I'm very pleased to update that the procedure went well and the check up showed good recovery!
Thanks to everyone for their kind love and support.
xx
Thank you for visiting Sagar’s page.
Sagar Dorji is a 5 year old boy from Assam, India.
Sagar, born to a family of illiterate daily wage labourers was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in July 2016 which caused him to suffer severe and prolonged haemorrhaging to both his eyes causing him severe pain and distress.
Sagar's parents were unable to afford the12,000 INR (£144) for basic medical tests and the severe bleeding in his eyes continued for some time before leukaemia was finally diagnosed.
Due to the critical condition of Sagar, the Assam government stepped in and covered the cost of transferring Sagar to Narayana Health City in Bangalore for advanced treatment. Sagar had intense chemotherapy and underwent a bone marrow transplant (his 9 year old sister Iradevi was his donor). Sargar has responded well to treatment, however, despite all best efforts to save his eyesight, we were informed In Jan17' that Sagar's optic nerves were too severely damaged and a cornea transplant to restore sight would not be going ahead. We were all devastated by this news as Sagar had so courageously fought his cancer battle.
I first heard about Sagar's situation through the British media and felt touched by Sagar’s situation. It was truly heartbreaking to see this child in so much pain and I was unable to comprehend how he was able to cope for so long without any treatment at all. Having suffered from several painful eye infections myself, I am aware of how lucky I was to receive immediate attention from Moorfields eye hospital.
I wanted to help Sagar and his family and was able to track down the father's details by using various social media sources. My cousin who speaks Hindi then reached out to the family on my behalf in October 2016 to offer assistance. We kept in regular contact and in February 17 I travelled to Bangalore to meet with Sagar and his family. I have then met them several times on subsequent visits and I have become very close to them. My family in India have all met Sagar and his family and are in regular contact.
Given that we were informed that the cornea transplant was not going ahead. Sagar’s parents decided to move back to Assam with the intention of enrolling Sagar in blind school. I collected his medical eye records and I promised the parents that I would reach out to world leading specialists for a second opinion. Following up further it seemed the general consensus amongst the specialists was that a cornea transplant would not work and the post-operative care too onerous on the parents to manage.
I continued with my search and reached out to one of the leading ophthalmologists in the world who is based in India, the hospital asked to see Sagar personally in order for them to carry out further investigation. I arranged for the family to travel from Assam to South India and following further tests the left eye showed that the optic nerve was functioning within normal ranges and the right eye showed some light perception although was within abnormal range. We were delighted by this news and for the first time in months felt that we had real hope.
The hospital agreed to operate to give Sagar a chance, despite the many challenges involved. Namely the extent of the damage to the eye, the usual complications involved in carrying out cornea transplants in children and the intensive post-operative care that is required. The transplant went ahead in early July (I covered the cost of the cornea transplant). Following the operation Sagar has healed better than expected and both the cornea and retina are in good shape. Sagar now has perception of light and has been given high prescription glasses to encourage his senses to see again. This will be a slow process given Sagar has been blind for a year, however we all hopeful that he will get some vison back given the success of the transplant. It will be challenging but we remain hopeful.
We are very grateful to the family of the young man from Hyderabhad who donated their son’s cornea to Sagar upon him passing.
Our Goal
We are raising additional funding to cover:
- visual rehabiliation for Sagar
- on going medical treatment for cancer
- eye check ups
- fees to cover schooling
- basic living expenses
We are hoping that if we can raise additional funding we will use this to arrange for some1 day eye camps in Assam (Sagar’s home state) to help other children with vision problems.
Everyone who meets Sagar is touched by his happy disposition and friendly nature. All of Sagar's doctors note how intelligent he is.
Despite all the cruel challenges that have come Sagar's way in the last year he has never lost his capacity to smile and his will to live is truly inspirational.
Our awareness to Sargar's ill health came about via the British media:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3733318/Tragedy-little-boy-eyes-bleed-POP-Mystery-condition-left-four-year-old-blind-doctors-baffled.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4105436/Boy-4-cured-leukaemia-caused-eyes-bleed-POP-story-attracted-attention-fundraisers.html
https://thelogicalindian.com/health/assam-boy-bleeding-eyes/
Sagar received treatment at the following hospital in Bangalore:
Mazmudar Shaw Medical centre
Department of Heamatology - Oncology
# 258/ A, Bommasandra industrial area
Anekal Taluk
Bangalore - 560099
Karnataka
India
Thank you to all those who have already kindly donated and for all the kind messages of support. It is greatly appreciated by us all.
Thanks for spreading the message!
*Update - 29.09.17 - Sagar underwent a Tarsorrhaphy last week . This is a surgical procedure whereby the eyelids are partially sewn together to narrow the eyelid opening, this was carried out to protect the cornea from dryness post corneal graft. I'm very pleased to update that the procedure went well and the check up showed good recovery!
Thanks to everyone for their kind love and support.
xx
Organizer
Neetha Shiva
Organizer
