Khang has severe kidney failure.

Every time they see their children playing happily, Do Thi Ngoc Anh (born in 1996) and Le Tuan Anh (born in 1993) hold back their pain, because their eldest son, Le Nhat Khang (born in 2016), is struggling with a serious illness every day. If they don't get a kidney transplant, their children's moments of happiness like this will not last long.

Ngoc Anh and her husband are from Phu Tho and moved to Hai Duong to start a business more than 10 years ago. They and their children are currently renting a small room on Nguyen Thuong Man Street, Binh Han Ward (Hai Duong City). According to Ngoc Anh, at 23 months old, the doctor discovered that Khang had kidney failure.

After that, due to the lack of response to the treatment, Khang was forced to use another highly toxic drug. The combination of the two drugs for a long time caused Khang to suffer side effects, causing glomerular atrophy, renal tubular atrophy, kidney cell death, and chronic renal failure. To treat the disease, Khang had to stay in the hospital for 18 consecutive months.

In October 2023, Khang's condition worsened and he had to undergo emergency dialysis at the National Children's Hospital. Doctors said the risk of death was high because his weight was not suitable for the filter. However, he fought the terrible disease and was prescribed a peritoneal dialysis catheter. Doctors performed surgery and placed a catheter in Khang's abdomen to support his kidney function.

Due to long-term kidney disease treatment, Khang's health has deteriorated, so he now has other diseases such as cataracts in both eyes, calcium deficiency causing limb cramps, anemia...

Sadly, peritoneal dialysis can only prolong Khang’s life for a few days, but cannot cure his illness. The only way to cure Khang is a kidney transplant.

“My husband, my wife and my grandparents have been tested but none of them meet the criteria to donate a kidney to our child. Now we can only wait for donated kidneys. Even if a suitable kidney is found, the cost will be up to 1.2 billion VND. That is a huge amount of money, we don’t know where to get it,” Ngoc Anh said, choking up.

Previously, Ms. Ngoc Anh worked as a factory worker, but after Khang got sick and gave birth to her second child in 2022, she quit to take care of her children. Mr. Tuan Anh currently works at a restaurant in Hai Duong City. He alone earns money to support the family of 4 and pay for Khang's medical treatment. Due to financial constraints, the couple joined a group of people with kidney disease to ask for dialysis fluid for their child. In their cramped rented house, they stored up to hundreds of cartons of fluid.

Everyone sympathized with Khang when he was 8 years old, weighed only 17 kg, had dark skin due to kidney disease, and always wore a dialysis tube. After years of treatment, Khang has just entered first grade this year. Every day, he can only go to school in the morning or afternoon because sitting too much will cause him pain and he also has to spend time on dialysis.

Ms. Bui Thi Tuyen, Head of the Red Cross Association of Binh Han Primary School (Hai Duong City) said that Khang's condition was very pitiful and his family was in financial difficulty. Without the help of the community, it was unknown when he would receive a kidney transplant. Recently, the school's Red Cross Association mobilized staff, teachers and students to join hands to support the family so that they could have more conditions to take care of Khang's health.

When asked what he wished for most, the crippled boy Khang answered softly: “I just wish to be cured so I can go to school and look after my younger siblings for my mother.” This seemingly simple wish is actually very fragile to him.