Toddler back from Cuba after receiving cancer treatment

Jan 07, 2017 News

Two-year-old Omkar Persaud has arrived home after undergoing several tests and cancer-related

Omkar Persaud

treatment in Cuba.
The toddler had travelled to the foreign country to have treatment done on his right eye after it was suspected that it was infected with cancer.
His left eye was first removed at a local hospital and it was later suggested that the little boy travel to Cuba for emergency treatment in order to prevent the disease from spreading.
Shea, a non-governmental-organization that sponsored Persaud’s expense, disclosed in a statement yesterday that doctors in Cuba, after completing several tests and cancer-related treatment had discovered that the disease had not spread to the right eye as previously suspected.
However, the disease is still present in the surrounding area of the boy’s left eye socket. The oncologist at the hospital, recommended 25 sessions of radiation therapy for the toddler in Cuba but his mother, Casandra Persaud, asked for the sessions to be done in Guyana.
The toddler’s left eye was removed after it was infected with retinoblastoma – a rare malignant tumour of the retina, affecting young children.
The child needed urgent treatment which included including intraocular and systemic chemotherapy and local cryotherapy to prevent the disease from spreading to the right eye.
The treatment is not available in Guyana, so he had to travel to Cuba. He was referred to a tertiary eye care plus cancer centre in that country for the specialized treatment.