The well-being and the happiness of their children is every parent’s top priority. That is the reason why many panic and rush to see a doctor when something out of the ordinary happens, like the kid developing a rush, any sort of ache, or any other slight inconvenience.
When baby Oscar was born, his parents noticed tiny red dots on his body but didn’t assume it was anything to be concerned about. However, as time passed by, those dots grew bigger and bigger and that raised a red flag so baby Oscar was taken to the hospital.
Stephanie and her husband Daniel were convinced the doctor would send them home with some medication for a rush or chickenpox and they weren’t prepared for what they were about to hear.
“At first we didn’t realise there was anything wrong, we thought it was just something normal like neonatal rash – but a midwife saw him and realized there might be a problem,” Stephanie said speaking to the Daily Mail.
“Since then, the spots have got progressively worse and worse.”
After doctors ran a number of tests, they diagnosed sweet Oscar with Langerhans cell hypertrophy, a rare cancer that attacks the cells of the immune system and is mostly shown in the skin as part of reactive lesions such as eczema.
Since the diagnosis in 2015, Oscar has undergone a huge number of blood tests, weekly blood and platelet transfusions, six bone marrow tests and two skin biopsies, but his parents are still left wondering what future holds for their son. Doctors say they have never seen a case where the child is in fact born with the spots, as they usually appear later on as the cancer progresses.
The good thing is that the disease has a 90% survival rate in children and everyone hopes Oscar would manage to overcome it eventually.
Stephanie says that most of the people on the street stare at her boy and take a step back when they see them approaching because they believe he has some infectious disease. But she won’t let anyone’s stares and words affect Oscar’s happiness and simply opts to ignore all the negativity. “People always ask if he’s got chickenpox, and they often stare at him and point him out in the street – people don’t want to come near him because they think they might catch it.”
Both she and her husband Daniel are doing their best to educate people on their son’s condition as they hope it will lead to acceptance.
“He’s got spots all over his body – even on his tongue and his eyeballs – which makes me worry about what’s going on inside,” Stephanie says.
The family has no other choice but to believe that things would turn for the better for their son, but they still have their fears because not much is known of this disease and doctors struggle to find options that would help Oscar fight against it the best he can.
Oscar’s life hasn’t been easy because he spends a lot of time in the hospital. Yet, he’s a very happy and bubbly child who loves spending his days around his loving mom and dad. They say that as long as Oscar is healthy, they don’t care how he looks on the outside.
We pray for him to be completely cured in the near future. Please share this story to raise awareness of this condition so people will understand it’s not contagious or something they should fear of.