Dirty Angels ride up to help 8-year-old suffering from haemophilia

GANGTOK, 21 Dec: Dirty Angels Motor Cycle Club [DAMCC] of Gangtok has extended financial support to an 8-year-old suffering from a blood deficiency disease and undergoing treatment at the Central Referral Hospital, 5th Mile, Tadong.
The father of the child, Bhim Bahadur Rai had made a public appeal seeking financial support for his son’s treatment.
Mr Rai’s family hails from Khamdong Ben in East Sikkim and the child was suffering from Haemophilia, a blood deficiency disease. STMN hospital referred the case to CRH after detecting bleeding in the brain due to haemophilia. The child has been undergoing treatment since 10 December.
Doctors at Manipal Hospital while speaking to NOW!, informed that the 8-year-old boy was in a serious condition and the first line of treatment was given immediately when his blood platelet count (Factor 8) was recorded below 10 percent. The platelet count has since increased to 76 percent. The bleeding was stopped by giving him cryoprecipitate [a frozen blood product prepared from plasma] and is now stable.
The treatment of this disease is very expensive, since the medicine is not available in Sikkim or Siliguri. The Haemophilia Society in Siliguri has to order the medicine from New Delhi which costs around Rs 8,000 per 250 ml and Mr Rai’s family could not afford such high costs.
Doctors in Manipal have said that it is a life long treatment and the boy would need the medicines throughout his life.
DAMCC president, Tshering Wangchuk Lepcha told reporters that they came to know of the boy from the local cable television and have come forward to support him for his initial treatment. Members of the club managed to collect Rs. 30,000 and handed over the amount to Mr Rai and appealed to other social and individual organisations to come forward to save the young child’s life.