Kuttan's Progress card ...

 Going through Esther’s Science textbook, I observed that there are some assignments after every chapter, these assignments are other than the questions and fill in the blank , match the following questions. I found that assignment activities were much more interesting and informative than the  regular exercise like there was on activity where children had to find out about different vaccines and the age when these vaccines are given. I asked Esther if they did the activity , she said teachers usually did not give assignment questions …..  I asked her if she tried doing the ‘Vaccination Chart’ activity , her answer was No . I told her where she will find her health card with all the details of the vaccination she has received. She found her Health card, and was thrilled to see the information about her first 3 years growth and vaccination.

The second activity in that chapter was to find out about different methods of treatment available for ‘Cancer’- A brief description of what cancer is and how it spreads was also given. Knowing some people who have/had undergone cancer treatment I thought let me check out the treatments available. So Googling with Esther found an interesting link and info on treatment– Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiation, Targeted Therapy, Immunotherapy , Hyperthermia, Stem Cell Transplant, Photodynamic Therapy, Laser, Blood Product donation & transfusion….. I explained Esther what each therapy was in a simple way and she made her short note …   while she made her notes, I was reminded of all the people I knew who fought their battle against cancer, their age varying from 4 years to 75 years, some winning the battle and some …..  but there was this one person who stayed on in my thoughts – 13 year old Kuttan ……

I had first heard of ‘Kuttan’ during prayer meeting some 5-6 yrs back … No am not much into prayer groups or meeting , but  5-6 yrs back I was in a small place Taunton, in UK and one of the weekend activity used to be an hour of prayer meeting , that was a good way of getting to know local Mallu community (in that small place there were around 35 Mallu Christian families) most of them were nurses (both male/female) exception being me . I met Kuttan soon after my 2^nd prayer meeting. Not sure what did I exactly feel then …. he was a class 8 student , he looked weak, was on wheel chair, smiling cheerfully – He lived with his mother who worked as a nurse and younger brother. I came to understand that Kuttan had brain tumor and since surgery was suppose to be risky he was on medication for more than an year and the medicines were not very effective lately …. His eyesight was weakening and probably  soon they would have no other option but to go for surgery and so all were getting mentally prepared to face the situation ….

The next week I saw he was had got a new keyboard for people with vision challenge, his medicines

were also changed , and his radiation therapy had also become more frequent , we all prayed that the new medicines would be more effective, and radiation more successful, and at the same time Kuttan’s mother was trying to make him physically strong so that in case of surgery he had enough strength to go through the long procedure …..  and then during the prayer I asked the most obvious question to god , why Kuttan – why this Child …..  though always smiling and giving confidence to his mother , one could not miss the fear in his eyes, he understood what was happening in his body and around him  ….  Why don’t you spare Children , God ….  After couple of months I came back ….. I was in touch with one of the nurse and her Son John, who updated me that Kuttan was carrying on … and then lost contact …. I hope Kuttan has recovered completely …….. I hope Kuttan’s mother has all the Health records starting from his vaccination chart to his recovery and how Kuttan fought all the bacteria germs and cancer ….  I hope Kuttan smiles looking at his Health card ..... he smiles looking at his progress report … ..