Mother feels devastated after giving birth to baby with rapidly aging progeria Ghana news

• Recently, YEN.com.gh interviewed a 20-year-old mother who recently gave birth to a baby with the rare disease
• The family is in trouble and even asked the health ministry to help them with the bills due to the baby’s troubles
• Medical experts have revealed that the genetic disease of progeria causes infants to age at a much faster rate than normal.

According to medical experts, progeria is a genetic condition that causes infants to age much faster from birth.

In Libode just outside Mthatha in the OR Tambo region on June 26, Mtshobi’s family saw themselves looking after their baby, born with Progeria, and life has been intense in the family ever since. There is confusion as this is the first time such a situation has been encountered in this family and they have no answer as to what could have been the trigger.

Grandmother Ntombizakhe Mtshobi, who is 55, says it’s so hard to accept. A two month old baby has never been seen before looking so old.

“We have become the laughing stock of the community, I have so many children and I do not have a job and now it is happening.”

She says the only question she has is how will the child grow up?

“When I hold her, I burst into tears,” in the words of the devastated grandmother.

When YEN.com.gh spoke to the mother, Ongeziwe Mtshobi, 20, she says she wants the government to take this child away from her.

“This is my first child, I was expecting a baby who will make me happy, I don’t know how I’m going to live a life with a child who already looks so old at two months.”

Ongeziwe says she needs psychological counseling and psychological help to be able to cope with this.

Her two month old baby, Onesipho, which means “the gifted”, is already an outcast in the community, compared to something that is not human, yet his name carries so much weight and volume.

Her child gave birth at home and it was only recently that Onesipho had to be taken to hospital for procedural medical observation after the birth. It was only then that the Libode community learned of the existence of the disease known as Progeria.

Mr. Petros Majola of the Khula Community Project, a leader in addressing human inequalities and human rights in the Eastern Cape, shared in a video clip that he urges communities to embrace uncontrollable conditions such as that of ‘Onesipho.

“For people continue to be victims of prejudice and little consideration,” he said.

Doctors say the disease unfortunately cannot be cured, but thanks to medical observations it can be monitored, checking whether the heart and blood vessels are healthy.

The community calls on the health service to intervene because Progeria requires intensive medical care for the child.

YEN.com.gh previously reported that a young Ghanaian single mother who lives in Likpe in the Volta region recounted how her four-year-old daughter became mysteriously disabled.

In an interview seen by YEN.com.gh on bonesmantv’s Instagram account, the woman said it all started on a fateful night when they returned from the weigh-in and the child was crying profusely.

The next day, she realized that the girl’s legs had become deformed and since then the little girl has been unable to walk on her own or even sit properly due to her condition.

Source: yen