Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Ten Year Old Vincent Oketch With Severe Elephantiasis Dies

For ten-year old, Vincent Oketch was treated with the harshest of realities. Oketch was hit by a strange disease and his legs got swollen abnormally; his parents even gave up on him.
He died after he  succumbed to heart failure and blockages before surgeons and experts could operate on him. Doctors had wanted his fats to be drained out before he would be flown out for the operation that could save his life.
oketch 1Just like any other toddler, Oketch tried walking at one-and-a-half years old but a the strange disease hit him. Doctors in UK offered to operate on him and part of the team had already flown in and had started treating him. He was discovered by Dr. Isaac Osire his Tororo-based organisation, Empowerment of Disadvantaged Youth and Children (ADYEC).
Osire said Oketch’s tissues were storing a lot of fats and were to be drained before they could fly him out for the operation. “An expert was expected to come in the second week of January to drain his tissues. We were in the process of getting travel documents for him when he died on the morning of December 26,” said Osire. It was Osire who helped to transfer Oketch from Tororo to the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in Uganda (CORSU) hospital along Entebbe Road from where the boy received preliminary treatment.
After a scan was done at Besta diagnostic centre, Kampala. it was found that Oketch had elephantiasis of the bilateral lower limbs and buttocks due to obstruction of the lymphatic system above the level of the sacrum, but the bilateral scrota are spared. The scan revealed that a large amount of effusion was seen in the left suprapetallar space and the left knee-joint.
Mild deformation was also noted in the bilateral lower limbs as well as a cyst in the membraneous urethra.
Rest in peace Oketch.

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