14-year-old Cameroonian survives cancer

Karl was diagnosed with leukaemia in January 2015; he came to Bengaluru as treatment was not available in his country.

After ten months of struggle both inside and outside the ICU, 14-year-old, Karl Alphonse, from Cameroon is all set to start studying and getting on with his life back home.

Karl was diagnosed with T-Cell Leukaemia in January 2015, with high risk features for which treatment at his native country was not possible. It was then suggested that the family come to the city for treatment.

After initial workup and detailed evaluation, he was found to have T-Cell leukaemia with aberrant expression of myeloid markers, disease present in the Brain (CSF positive), non-healing ulcer of the leg, sickle cell trait and a strong family history of malignancy.

“He was suffering from T-Cell Leukaemia of a high-risk category and the leukaemia spread to the brain and there were multiple complications,” explains Dr Intezar Mehdi, Director and Head- Paediatric Oncology, Hematology and BMT at HCG.

“He was having repeated episodes of infection with it spreading to the blood, liver and other vital organs because of which he was shifted to the ICU on multiple occasions. He was on a ventilator as he was having multiple-organ failure,” says his treating doctor.

At one such instance, young Karl was in the ICU for almost a month. Young Karl who is six feet tall and 67 kilograms in weight was reduced to a mere 40 kilograms at the ICU which was painful for the mother to watch. “I had a lot of faith and I knew my son would be fine,” says Karl’s mother.

However, after fighting for 10 months at the HCG, he is clear of the disease and is in complete remission at the moment.

“He is under maintenance chemotherapy from January 18 with a plan to continue treatment till August 2018 with oral chemotherapy and monthly intravenous chemotherapy. He will continue the maintenance treatment in his home country” adds the doctor.

“I am so happy to be able to get on with my studies,” says Karl who on being asked about the trauma adds, “I knew I would be fine and my mother was around and she instilled me with hope and faith and I was just not sad at all.” The family informs that they leave for their home on Monday night.