Heartbreaking pictures have emerged of a baby girl in India facing a race against time for surgery to remove a solid mass on her neck.
Kaokuchangti Reang has an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) – a tangle of blood vessels under the skin causing disfigurement.
Doctors warn her condition is ‘decreasing by the day’ and have quoted a sum of 500,000 Rupees (£5,645) for treating the ‘rock hard marble’ mass.
But her poverty-stricken mother is unable to afford such a fee and has resorted to fundraising, in a last ditch hope for her 10-month-old daughter.
Baktirung, 20, who has no husband, has now received help from a local charity, who have today begged kind-hearted strangers to donate.
Kaokuchangti Reang has an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) – a tangle of blood vessels under the skin causing disfigurement (pictured recently)
In a heartbreaking interview with local reporters, Baktirung said: ‘We have no money, many people have volunteered to help we owe them our lives.’
She first approached doctors in a remote village where she lives, when her daughter had a ‘cough and cold’ – but these are not known symptoms of an AVM.
Medics in North Tripura – in the north east of the country – were unable to confirm what was wrong with Kaokuchangti.
As her condition continued to worsen, Baktirung took her to the AGMC Hospital in Agartala – a 124 miles (200km) journey west.
Doctors warn her condition is ‘decreasing by the day’ and have quoted a sum of 500,000 Rupees (£5,645) for treating the ‘rock hard marble’ mass (pictured with her mother Baktirung, 20, before the mass started to grow)
But doctors face a race against time as they claim Kaokuchangti needs immediate treatment, as her condition is ‘decreasing by the day’.
Issac Kaipeng, of the unnamed community group that stepped in to help, said he was ‘shocked’ to see Kaokuchangti’s condition.
He told local reporters: ‘I came to know about this girl through a local source and really wanted to help her.’
‘Her family did not even have proper knowledge where to consult and which hospital to get, let alone be the line of treatment.
‘We brought her to AGMC then and got her treatment started there. But we had limited funds, we hope people come forward to help this baby get some help.’
Issac told local reporters Indian doctors quoted a sum of 500,000 Indian Rupees, which he said was a ‘huge’ amount for the family.
The 38-year-old added: ‘The doctors have said she needs an immediate treatment as her condition is decreasing by the day.’
Issac has started a fundraising page for those wanting to donate towards treatment.
Doctors there diagnosed Kaokuchangti’s neck mass as an AVM and revealed she had congestive heart failure – a little-known symptom.
The first part of treatment has already started at the AGMC Hospital – but details of the procedure have yet to surface in local reports.
Baktirung, who works as a wage labourer with a meagre income, has been asked to take her daughter outside the state for further treatment when is stable.
After pleading for help to treat her ‘healthy’ and ‘joyful’ girl, a local charity stepped in to desperately try and raise the money needed.
Baktirung, 20, has now received help from a local charity, who have today begged kind-hearted strangers to donate (pictured with Kaokuchangti before her mass started to grow)