Isra Zahid, 19, arrived in Pakistan from Saudi Arabia three years ago with a dream of studying medicine. But little did she know how a minor cough would change her life.
Zahid found out that she had a type of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which is cancer of the glands. Moreover, it is a highly curable disease. “Children like Isra are very rare,” said Dr. Naima, who treats prostate and blood cancers at Indus Hospital. It usually takes a few weeks or at most a month to be diagnosed with cancer, but in the case of Zahid, it took a full six months.
The process of diagnosing Zahid’s illness made her even sicker. She even weighed 35 kg and was unable to carry her own weight and was confined to a wheelchair. Upon finding a large hole in her lung, the doctors thought she had TB. However, after all the treatments failed, various biopsies revealed that Zahid had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
According to Dr. Naima, it is treatable cancer and can be cured in just six months. Neither Zahid nor her family nor the doctors gave up.
Doctors performed immunotherapy for Zahid. It is a very expensive treatment. In addition, on July 30, 2020, her bone marrow was transplanted on the day of Hajj. Zahid performed the Hajj while listening to the Takbeers. Now Zahid’s condition is better than ever and she has recently passed her university final year exams.
Isra Zahid was ‘happy’ to find out she has cancer
Her immunotherapy treatment is still going on, but despite all the difficulties, Zahid says, “The real happy day for me was when I found out I had cancer because I had been suffering from such an illness for a long time.”
“I was fighting a disease I had no knowledge of and every human being has a basic right to know what is wrong with him,” she added. The first thing that came out of her mouth was ‘Alhamdulillah’.
According to Dr. Naima, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a cancer of the gland that starts in different glands in the body. This causes the glands in different parts of the body such as the neck, abdomen, chest, or other parts of the body to start to expand. This disease takes a long time to diagnose.
What a brave girl!
Numerous people around the world fight a constant battle for life. One such is Umair Shafique who 20 years along the line, continues to suffer from chronic kidney disease. A four-year-old boy Aslan also suffers from a syndrome that affects one in ten million children.
Story Courtesy: Independent Urdu
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