A three-year-old child from a poor family in central Quang Nam Province is facing total blindness because his family cannot afford to pay to take him abroad to treat his eye cancer.

The Eye Cancer Network, an online-based community dedicated to eye tumor patients, said more than 90 percent of children can be cured of retinoblastoma through early detection and treatment.

Bao and his father are temporarily staying with their relatives in Dong Nai Province so the boy can visit Ho Chi Minh City Tumor Hospital for treatment.

“We named him Gia Bao [family treasure] with all our love and affection,” the child’s father Phan Chin said. “He developed symptoms of eye disease only few months after being born.”

In 2005, the HCMC Ophthalmology Hospital, who had accepted the child from Da Nang Ophthalmology Hospital, had to remove his left eye after finding the cancer had spread to his retina.

“After that, he improved and has shown healthy development,” his father said. “Later medical checks, conducted once every three months, found no sign of the disease.”

However, Chin said the sight in Bao’s right eye had deteriorated rapidly this month. Doctors at the HCMC Ophthalmology

Hospital said they may have no choice but to remove his remaining eye.

The family, hoping to maintain the child’s vision, transferred him to HCMC Tumor Hospital for intense treatments.

“I have searched on the Internet and found that some hospitals in the US and Australia might have certain treatments that could maintain his vision,” he said.

But Chin said the family was too poor to afford the cost of flying abroad and paying for the treatment.

“I am hoping for some advice from experts, or for some magic that could help my son become healthy again,” Chin said.

Reported by Dang Ngoc Khoa