IMAGINE having a child born normally but who develops some deformities, causing the stomach to swell.

You try the hospital and one doctor says your child has a liver problem. You ask him to prepare a medical report, he delegates his colleague to do that. The document finally changes to indicate that your child has a heart instead of a liver problem.

When your desperate call gets to the outside world, overseas medical practictioners offer to take up the trouble to work on your child's heart at no fee at all. When they engage their own expert to carry out an independent diagnosis of your child's interior, the Italian doctor also diagnoses a liver problem and does a report which tallies with the first doctor's findings.

Because of the complexity of a liver transplant surgery and doctors' uncertainty on the possibility of finding a compatible organ, the would-be overseas assistance is withdrawn, sending all preparations back to zero.

This is the situation a Ndola family has found itself in and because of this, the victim, 14-year-old Daniel Chisenga, who should have written his grade nine examinations last year, must continue to depend on prayer until the day some good Samaritan, will offer to sponsor him for specialist treatment.

According to Daniel's mother, Esther, she had no slightest feeling during pregnancy that she would have a deformed baby and true to that, she was awarded with a normal bouncy baby boy weighing 3.5 kilogrammes at birth on April 17, 1995.

Then the family lived in Ndola's Mushili Township.

But problems for the boy started when he turned two years old. Six months later, Daniel's family relocated to Kapiri Mposhi where he was first taken to a doctor at the district hospital. The family returned to Ndola shortly after in search of further treatment at Arthur Davison Children's Hospital (ADH).

This was where doctors who first attended to Daniel failed to detect anything specific and only indicated the presence of smoke-like stuff whose source nor cause they could not ascertain.

Ten years on in 2005, medics decided to try Daniel on tuberculosis (TB) treatment. The result was not encouraging as the boy reacted negatively to the wrong antidote. It had to be discontinued, recalls the mother.

Then, Daniel's stomach had started bulging.

At the turn of 2006, Zambia was flooded with medical doctors from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some of whom were posted to the children's hospital. They advised that Daniel goes for an echocardiography and indicated from the onset that it was not something that could be treated in Zambia.

Present ADH director, Sam Phiri, took the boy through the examination and is revered as the first to detect and let the cat out of the bag, that Daniel has a defective liver.

"I asked him what assistance he would give to help mitigate my son's problem, Dr Phiri told me there was nothing he could do. Even the medicines prescribed thereafter were just to lessen the pain and not what would cure my son," recollects Daniel's mother.

This is how Daniel has continued to be a slave of the disease which, it is clear, cannot be cured in Zambia.

Until August, the boy used to undergo water extraction every month since 2005 when it looked like he would not be cured by other forms of conventional medication.

It took an Italian doctor, Giovanni Bellagamba, who was on a private visit to Zambia and Luanshya to halt the exercise he argued robbed the boy of valuable nutrients from the body through water extraction and on October 6, he introduced Daniel to two types of drugs - Frusemide and Canrenon.

These are what can be said to be responsible for Daniel's improved condition today, although the stomach remains inflated while other side-effects, including increased appetite, have been noted and because of this, the boy has to be released from school at 11:45 hours every day to go and eat at home.

His class teacher, Richard Mulenga, is under instruction to observe this arrangement every school day.

But Esther does not hide her disappointment at the initial diagnosis which stated in the medical report that the boy suffered from a heart problem after Dr Phiri had earlier diagnosed a liver disorder.

She is especially disappointed that after all the hopes built around the Italian would-be support to send the boy for a heart operation, nothing came to fruition after Dr Bellagamba, who was mandated to carry out an independent diagnosis, also arrived at the liver and completely ruled out anything to do with the heart.

The earlier diagnosis reads:

"The overall diagnosis was rheumatic heart disease with mitral stenosis complicated with congestive cardiac failure (ascites).

"He has been treated symptomatically with spironolactone, furosemide, anti-tuberculosis treatment and he comes regularly for paracentasis to relieve pressure in the abdomen due to fluid accumulation.

"He needs further medico-surgical management in terms of further investigation and possible mitro valve replacement. We hope this information will suffice in your effort to improve the well-being of Daniel," it reads.

When therefore the liver disorder was upheld by Dr Bellagamba, the would-be sponsors of the perceived heart operation had to think twice and decided to withdraw their intended support.

The bombshell got to the Chisengas through Catholic clerics, Father Miha and Father Davolli Umberto, both of Ndola.

Contrary to media reports attributed to them that they were seeking a donor who would finance Daniel's stay in Italy for the rest of his life under the watchful eye of medics, the two messengers merely asked Daniel's mother to remain prayerful in her crusade to find people who would support her son's operation.

This was because the Italians had withdrawn their earlier offer to carry out an operation based on the heart diagnosis.

But once Dr Bellagamba went back to Italy and presented his findings on Daniel to the Trieste doctors, they wrote and Fr Umberto translated: "We were ready to tell you to prepare the documents for Daniel and his mother to come, but what we have been told by Dr Bellagamba seems quite unsettling.

"Our conclusions before the echocardiography had been that Daniel had a heart problem, with the need to change a cardiac valve; that Daniel was not growing as he should, but no one had found the cause; and that Daniel had a liver problem, but no one knew its real entity and cause.

"The cardiac problem alone could not justify the hydro-accumulation and retention; this made us think of a hepatic problem. Should a liver transplant be needed, things would get more complicated. Even a successful operation could demand that Daniel remains in Italy to check and keep under control eventual rejection cases," stated the letter of October 8, 2009.

On October 23, 2009, the same doctors were at it again, this time stating what Dr Bellagamba had diagnosed and Fr Umberto translated as follows:

"Since the echocardiography found Daniel's heart in perfect condition with nothing abnormal, Dr Bellagamba did a careful exam of Daniel's stomach and abdomen to find out what could cause the water retention.

"According to the doctor, the boy's liver is extremely compromised possibly because of a not cured hepatitis or because of parasites... to survive, Daniel will sooner or later need at least a liver transplant if no other organ has been damaged.

"Now, apart from the huge cost of the operation (fund-raising would answer for that), it is not very easy to find a compatible liver; no one can guarantee for the transplant success and worst of all, Daniel could be forced to remain in Italy to ensure anti-rejection prevention," they stated.

According to Fr Umberto, the doctors feel they cannot offer the best to Daniel under the circumstances. They are also concerned about the length of time the boy would be required to stay away from home and whether or not he would be happy with such an arrangement.

Besides, they are also worried for Esther keeping up in a foreign country and under sad situations, not knowing what tomorrow would bring for little Daniel.

"They thought it better to withdraw from the too challenging project and we thank them for the trial," was Fr Umberto's remark about it all.

"When you try and fail, you should not be sad for having failed but be happy for having tried," is the remark from the Italian doctors.

"What next" is the question now. The fight to mobilise external resources beyond Daniel's family must continue and director of Ulalo Community School to which the boy belongs, Didansio Daka, is spearheading the campaign.

The school falls under the Vulnerable Children Advocacy Project, a

registered non-governmental organisation (NGO) and umbrella of two community schools, the other being Khuzyeni situated on Ndola-Mufulira Road near First Quantum Mine.

Mr Daka has so far embarked on a crusade to preach far and wide Daniel's predicament to specific ministries and NGOs in pursuit of assistance which would enable the boy to undergo treatment abroad and be able to live on.

In his current condition, Daniel is living on borrowed time and his mother knows this. A daily prayer helps her endure as she continues to live for her son. She cannot afford to stay away from her home even when other pressing matters elsewhere call for her attention because she must cook for Daniel and ensure that he takes his drugs as per prescription.

In class, Daniel's prowess is undoubted, always coming out among the best five and he will never stay away because of his condition, says teacher Mulenga.

Despite his condition, he has a horde of friends and he will rarely be found alone. He acknowledges though that some untutored minors have occasionally poured scorn on him but this does not daunt him from living on because as he puts it, he never asked for his ailment from God.

After all that the family has been subjected to, threatening the life of one of her five children, Esther now wishes she could find help to take her to Nigeria to seek internationally-acclaimed spiritual healer, TB Joshua's intervention.

Esther is also prayerful that the Government may come in and help save Daniel. But she is mindful of the procedure leading to Government intervention and wonders why those responsible have not transferred the matter to the University Teaching Hospital so that a group of doctors can make their own findings and possibly recommend for the boy's treatment abroad.

This could be the fastest and only possible way out to save Daniel.

Esther is a believer in God and despite all the odds, she is always smiling.

"I believe in my God and he has always been there for me. One door might close today but I know my God will provide another way.

"I am also looking at TB Joshua where Daniel can receive treatment by prayer alongside medical attention, but we are financially incapacitated as a family and hope some good Samaritans can come to our aid," she said as she talked to the author who visited the family at their rented three-roomed house in Ndola's Chipulukusu township.

Esther says the family has struggled to survive the past 14 years, 12 of which have been dedicated to caring for Daniel who was in grade six last year and will be doing his grade seven this year.

"We have not been able to progress all these years and even failed to build and today we are still renting this three-roomed house," she said - signalling to the K40,000 per month structure.

"If there are any individuals willing to help us in any way, they will have saved souls," pleaded Esther.

Mr Daka acknowledges how it is daily proving almost impossible to find would-be sponsors for Daniel's operation and is almost leaving it up to the Government to force the ADH administration to hand over the case to the UTH for possible recommendation for specialist treatment abroad.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Daka said he had not received any response from all the offices he had so far approached, among them some Goverment ministries but remains hopeful a benefactor will some day be found.

For now, one can only pray for the Chisengas as they continue to look into their future with uncertainty.