Five year old boy suffers such severe eczema he can barely
walk, he told his mother he wants to d1e rather than suffer any more pain. Dana Bishop, 36, says her son Morgan has battled the skin
condition since he was four months old.
His family are now at breaking point, having tried almost
every treatment available on the NHS – including a form of chemotherapy.
READ MORE BELOW
The skin on his feet and legs has become so sore he cannot
walk, meaning he has to use a mobility scooter to move around during a
flare-up.
And as the eczema stops him from sleeping, he can only
attend school for half days at a time and is rarely able to play with his
friends
We've lost part of Morgan's personality to the eczema,' said
Mrs Bishop, of Tadworth, Surrey, who has had to give up work as a family
support worker to care for her son.
'We haven't got lives. Winter is hell for his skin because
of the central heating and cold weather, but we rarely go outside in the summer
either as heat and pollen aggravate the eczema too.
'There's no respite for us. On his fifth birthday, Morgan
told me he'd rather d!e than cope with the pain of eczema anymore – it was
heartbreaking to hear.'
Morgan is often exhausted after being in too much pain to
sleep at night and so attends school in the morning and naps in the afternoon.
During school hours, he gets too distracted by his itchy skin
to even hold a pencil.
The skin on the soles of his feet and backs of his knees is
so cracked and sore that he can barely walk
'He'll come home from school and tell me that he tried to
play with his friends, but had to sit out after just a few steps,' Mrs Bishop
said.
'When it gets really bad, it almost looks like an acid burn.
'His one-year-old brother Jenson is very understanding.
He'll see Morgan scratching and try to help by rubbing his cream in for him.
My husband and I have to take it in turns to take Jenson out
as it's not fair on him to be inside all the time, but we feel guilty not being
able to include Morgan.'
Mrs Bishop and her husband Paul, 43, say they are
'constantly' applying cream to Morgan throughout the day – far more than the
four to six times recommended.
The couple also swaddle him in a wet wrap every night.
Over the past eight months, they say they have experienced
just four 'good days' where Morgan's skin does not flare up.
'It's an emotional rollercoaster, we'll have snippets where
he's comfortable and we can see glimmers of his happy, chatty personality, then
the itching starts again and he becomes irritable and irrational,' Mrs Bishop
said.
As well eczema, schoolboy has asthma and life-threatening
nephotic syndrome, which sees large amounts of protein leak out of his kidneys.
Mrs Bishop believes the immune suppressing drugs her son
must take to combat his kidney problems have, in turn worsened his eczema.
He also has more than 20 allergies including eggs, nuts,
dairy, potatoes, soya and rice.
Doctors are doing a process of elimination to work out
exactly what Morgan is allergic or intolerant to, but currently, there's very
little he can eat.
They have suggested the family feed him via a tube directly
into his stomach, and introduce one food at a time to see what he can tolerate.
However, Mrs Bishop believes this approach is likely to be
difficult as Morgan won't understand why he is being denied his favourite foods.
She said: 'But he's already experienced food so he'll know
what he's missing. He's too old to not realise what's going on but too young to
rationalise with and understand that it'll be for his own good.
'He's very strong-willed, so I know he'll just pull the tube
out.'
Scouring the internet for help, Mr and Mrs Bishop recently
discovered a hydrotherapy clinic called the Avene Centre in France.
The centre offer treatments in warm water and wraps which
claim to treat eczema and psoriasis.
Boasting several success stories, Mrs Bishop believes it is
their last chance to help Morgan.
She has now set up a GoFundMe page to raise the funds
required for a three-week course of treatment, which will include the
hydrotherapy with natural spring water and consultations with leading
dermatologists.
Mr Bishop is also planning a 900 mile charity bike ride to
help with costs
0 comments:
Post a Comment