Two-year-old Mark Jhian Fajardo has been confined at San Lazaro Hospital鈥檚 intensive care unit for over two months due to meningitis, an infection that affects the delicate membranes called meninges which cover his brain and spinal cord.
鈥淗is attending doctors told us that there is a mass of water inside his brain but the condition can鈥檛 be hydrocephalus because the size of his head remains the same,鈥� Mark鈥檚 father Louiemar told the Inquirer.
That fact that Mark鈥檚 brain has not swelled up despite the presence of water makes his condition more serious, leaving him in need of immediate medical care, Louiemar said, citing the doctors鈥� diagnosis.
鈥淭he patient has preferential gaze, occasional muscle spasm and [is] lethargic,鈥� Dr. Roselyn de la Cruz said in Mark鈥檚 clinical abstract.
鈥淭here are instances when he would be awake, but most of the time he [would be] sleeping. He would suffer seizures in between,鈥� the doctor said, adding that the medicines being given to the boy were not effective.
Louiemar is hoping that he and wife Edwina would be able to raise P22,000 because their son is scheduled to undergo an operation. Doctors want to insert a shunt, a narrow piece of tube, into his brain to remove the excess fluid.
Louiemar, who lives with his family in Punta, Sta. Ana, has been working as a janitor at the Arzobispado de Manila in Intramuros since 2005, earning P400 daily.
Those who want to help his son can reach him at聽 0946-3536833 and 0912-0350211. Donations can be deposited in his BPI account (Louiemar Fajardo, #3719-3882-63).