Zaidi tries to get his son’s vision back

KARACHI:

Back in 2006, Shahzad Zaidi’s son, Ali Ghazi, fell sick in the early hours of the morning. Finding a doctor at the time proved to be very difficult and after much searching, Zaidi eventually found one clinic open.

The doctor treated his son’s high fever with an anti-malarial sulfa drug. The next day, instead of subsiding, the fever got worse and Ali lost consciousness. Zaidi admitted his child to the Liaquat National Hospital, where he was horrified to learn that Ali was suffering from Stevens-Johnson syndrome – a severe adverse reaction to medication. The syndrome gradually took away Ali’s eyesight as his cornea was scarred by blisters.

After finding out that the technology to re-grow an eye with the help of stem cells was unavailable in Pakistan, Zaidi took Ali to India and the United Kingdom for treatment. Ali Ghazi has gone through five surgeries but has not regained his vision. Zaidi wants his son to undergo the tooth-in-eye surgery, Osteo-Odonto Keratoprosthesis, worth £100,000. “I was hopeful then and, despite everything, I’m still confident that there must be a cure,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2012.