A 8 year old boy in India named Kaleem is suffering from an extremely rare (so rare doctors aren’t really sure what it is) condition that has caused the otherwise healthy child to grow two REALLY REALLY big hands.
Already oversized at birth, twice the size of a normal child’s, they’ve now expanded tremendously to 13 inches from the bottom of his palm to the tip of his middle finger. He can’t even feed himself because he cannot properly close them and has to have help with multiple daily tasks. Not to mention the daily razzing he takes from other children. “Even when I tried to get Kaleem into the school,” his father Shamim said, “the headmaster told me to put in writing that the school would not be responsible if the other children were afraid of his hands or bullied him or laughed at him”. Kaleem said, “I do not go to school because the teacher says other kids are scared of my hands. Many of them used to bully me for my deformity. They would say “let’s beat up the kid with the large hands”. One can only speculate how dumb some of these kids must be; even without a fist, I suspect Kaleem could muster one helluva slap.
Kaleem’s family wants help for their child; his condition could potentially be dangerous as well. Dr Krishan Chugh, from a modern research institute near Dehli, believes increased growth could damage his cardiovascular system, which could considerably shorten his life. His parents have sought help to get their child into surgery, but their extreme poverty, they earn about 15£ a month, has left them without options. “We have tried several places with no solutions so far,” said Shamim. “But I have a feeling there is a way to get the resources to give my son a normal life.”
I wish there was some easy solution to help Kaleem and his family but it looks like they might have a ways to go before they find the help they need. I can only hope by writing about it here someone might see it who’ll know how to lend a hand.
Terrible puns aside, we hope Kaleem really does get the help he needs.