Dubai boy succumbs to brain tumour

A brain tumour afflicted Indian boy in Dubai, who received much financial support from kind-hearted expats based in UAE after a media campaign last year, has now succumbed to the deadly disease in a hospital in India.

Sourav, a nine-year-old student of Indian High School, Dubai, has died after undergoing treatment at Rashid Hospital Dubai and at Amritha Hospital in Kochi for almost a year.

After Emirates 24|7 reported in May 2012 the sad story of the boy and his middle class family that used to live in International City, a number of kind hearted people came forward to offer monetary support for the expensive medical treatment for the boy.

Dubai-based radio stations and other media also helped to raise funds for the boy’s medical treatment. FM Radio Spice 105.4.picked up the Emirates 24|7 story and raised Dh1,20,000 for Sourav.

“His death is shocking because we thought he will recover. That is what doctors said and we did what we could for the family,” said Herman Lewis, CEO of the radio station.

Radio listeners responded promptly to the appeals made by RJ Krithika in the station’s breakfast show.

The Grade III student was diagnosed with brain tumour after he persistently complained of back pain and headache and his diagnosis shattered his family hailing from Kottayam in Kerala.

His father Sunil Kumar earlier told Emirates 24|7 that help started pouring in from various associations after neurosurgeons at Rashid Hospital advised immediate surgery to save the boy. A city-based radio station picked up the story and RJ Krithika raised a good sum of money for the boy’s treatment.

“Students, teachers and the management of Indian High School Dubai are saddened by his death. We were all praying for his recovery,” said a source at the school’s junior division.

Associations like the Al Khail Gate Malayali Association too had raised funds for the boy’s treatment. Officials of the association said they are saddened by the news about his death.

Doctors in Dubai were initially treating him for short sightedness and back pain before they diagnosed his brain tumour, which was by then at an advanced stage. Also, the boy’s father was on the verge of becoming jobless when this happened.

“Today morning his mother called me and said he had died. Last year at this time he was diagnosed and taken to Amritha Hospital, Kochi where doctors advised the family to give him ten chemo therapies,” said his class teacher Rajashree at Indian High School Dubai.

“We were informed by his mother that the boy could take eight chemos and became very weak afterwards. Only two more chemo therapies remained but Sourav’s body had become very weak and he could not continue the treatment. His blood pressure was also very low,” she said.

Recollecting Sourav’s active days in the school as a Grade III student, she said teachers had noticed that he was not performing well and had informed his parents.

Students and teachers may hold a condolence meeting after a decision is made by the school’s management.

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