Cases of head growth raise alarm

Yet another case of a baby with a swollen head has emerged, adding to the growing number of these cases in Samoa during the past few months.

This time, mother, Toe Uati, of Vailima, is concerned about the life of her three-month-old son, Jacob Timothy Ropati.

Since birth, the growth on Jacob’s head has been hard to ignore for his family.

In June, Ms. Uati told the Samoa Observer the circumference of her son’s head was 35cm.
Today, it is 45cm.

The concerned mother says Jacob had a growth on the side of his head when he was born. At the time, she was informed by the staff at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital that it would return to normal.
It has not..

“I want to know if my child can be operated on and how old he should be to be able to receive treatment or have surgery done on him,” she told the Samoa Observer.

Asked if she had been working with the hospital, she said yes.

“It’s been three months,” she said. “I have been going back and forth to see the surgeons at the hospital and they told me that my son has to have a scan to determine what is causing the growth.

“Up until now, no scan has been done on my son because the surgeons told me that the hospital scanner is broken.”

Attempts to get a comment from the Ministry of Health were unsuccessful.

The Secretary of the Director General said Leausa Dr. Take Naseri was in a meeting.

For Ms. Uati though, she is not sitting around.

She has already asked the Samoa Victim Support Group for help.

“I came here for help because I want my son to be taken overseas to see why this is happening before its too late.”

President of S.V.S.G, Lina Chang, admitted that from their experience, the condition is quite common in Samoa.

She wonders if the Ministry of Health should conduct a research to find out why this is happening.

“We wonder if it happens from inside the mother’s womb or if it’s God’s doing?” said Mrs. Chang.

“We don’t have the wisdom and the knowledge however all we can do is to give them help in not giving up in caring for their child.

We would love to do some awareness programmes on this disease however we don’t know what it is.

Parents are panicking and walking into our office and we are also panicking because we don’t know anything about this.

We don’t know what to do so there is no real help for these people.”

Earlier this week, the Samoa Observer featured another story about a 10-month-old baby with the same condition.

Meri Miracle’s grandmother, Puava Lameta, says the family is looking at taking her overseas for medical treatment as soon as possible.

Last year, another baby suffering from the same ailment died.

“Manu’s just the same. He stays with some old friends and they go outside playing touch rugby together. We were playing touch rugby together in our village at home”