Miracles Do Happen! By Anuraj Nair

It was back in 2019, my friend and his wife got a baby. The newborn was so cute that within a few days of his birth, he united his whole family and there was a moment of joy everywhere. The days passed by and little till they noticed that baby was getting some sort of disease. He was having difficulty with breathing, difficulty with movements like sitting, crawling, and walking, difficulty swallowing food items, was feeling tremors in muscles and was constantly crying with pain.

 

Seeing him in the most pain, my friend Rafeeq & his wife took him to the nearest government hospital in Kerala, and there the couple realized that he is suffering from a rare disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It’s one of the rare genetic disorders. The doctors in the Kannur Government hospital told the couple that they would require a dose of zolgensma, which is considered one of the most expensive drugs in the world to treat his child.

 

All of a sudden, their calmness turned to distress. Taking hope in their heart, they wandered around so many government and private hospitals across Kerala to treat their child.

Many months passed by, and Mohammed (Young soul) turned 18 months old. Rafeeq was about to lose all his hope as the drug cost around 18 crores and the drug is not available in India. The drug needs to be imported from Switzerland and it's extremely difficult for a common middle-class man to afford a whopping amount of 18 crores. Moreover, this is a kind of a disease where it should be treated as immediately as possible because with time, the risk to life increases.

The local governing body in Kerala helped Rafeeq with some crowdfunding Initiatives, but the contributions were far too little that it felt like a few drops of ocean. Taking Allah’s name and determined to save his child, Rafeeq regained his last hope and fought to collect every pinch of money that he could to save his child. 

With the media having a strong presence in Kerala, the issue got reported and was aired on Kerala’s No.1 News channel named Asianet News in 2021 and the response to this was heavily taken by the nonresident Malayalees. This issue united all the Malayalees across the globe and they made heavy contributions to save this child. In a display of human kindness for a cause of serious concern, ₹ 18 crores were raised in Kerala through crowdfunding in seven days for an 18-month-old child. 

 

Yes, you heard it right, 18 crores in 7 days! Moreover, the Kerala Government stepped in for help by waiving all taxes for the sum received as contributions to save this child and assured them of the best treatment. It was something not less than a miracle what the Malayalee community did for this child. We all felt like Allah (God) himself came to save this child. Seeing the acts of repetitive unity by this southern state of Kerala, The news got national attention later in 2021.

Miracles do happen! Don’t lose hope. We should try our best, until the last.