Help give Daniel a chance in life

SIX year old Daniel Camp looks like any regular little boy his age. There’s a scattering of freckles across his nose that are testament to his love of the outdoors and his big blue eyes sparkle with mischief as he gives an impish grin. Like most little boys Daniel loves to climb trees and ride his bike, but nowadays all Daniel’s play has to be strictly supervised. Daniel suffers from cortical dysplasia and intractable epilepsy.

His parents, Pete and Sheena Camp could never have dreamed that their perfect newborn son was destined to a life of suffering.

“Daniel’s problem started in October 2011 when he suddenly, overnight, started having severe seizures,” explained Sheena. “He was incorrectly diagnosed with Herpes simplex encephalitis and spent three weeks in hospital on an IV drip, 24 hours a day,” she said. At the time, the family did not have medical aid and they had to face some hefty bills.

In January 2012, Daniel started his school life at Hillcrest Pre-Primary School and was relatively stable until July of that year.

“He started having complex partial seizeures which occurred up to 10 times a day and we were forced to take him out of school for the rest of the year,” said Sheena.

Pete and Sheena consulted with Daniel’s specialist who recommended he attend Brown’s School, a school for children with special needs.

“He has a full-time facilitator who is employed to aid Daniel’s well-being and safety while at school,” explained Sheena adding “He is never left unattended and can’t ride his bike or scooter without having a seizure.”

Currently, Daniel is on five different types of anti-convulsant drugs and has been on a strict Ketogeni diet for six months. Sadly, neither of these treatments has been successful in stopping Daniel’s seizures.

What is even more devastating for Pete and Sheena is the regression in their son’s pysical motor skills and social skills. “There are often behaviourable problems that stem from not only the seizures but the neurologically altering drugs as well,” said Sheena.

Cortical Dysplasia is not uncommon. Some people can live their enitre life not knowing they have it. In layman’s terms, Daniel suffers from a congenital cortical malformation. His brain tissue didn’t form properly as a foetus. It is like having a birth mark or scar tissue on the brain Unfortunately, in Daniel’s case, it is the entire right temporal lobe of his brain that is affected.”

According to Daniel’s specialists, without neuroepileptic surgery, Daniel will continue to have intractable seizures requiring hospitalisation and acute seizure management with complete neurodevelopment regression and specilaised remedial schooling.

They recommend that he be referred to Dr James Butler and Dr R Melville at Constantiaberg Hospital in Cape Town for assessment with a view to epilepsy surgery.

This treatmebt will involve a 72-hour video E.E.G. a cortical E.E.G., possible neurosurgery, a high defninition MRI, a neuropyschological profile and possible focal lesionectomy or Palliative Corpus Collosotomy.

Daniel comes from a regular family. Sheena and Pete are self-employed and he has a little brother, Joshua. To date, Daniel’s medical bills have cost the couple R350 000. Pete and Sheena have to find a further R250 000 to fund the advanced treatment and possible brain surgery in Cape Town as well as travel and accommodation costs. Their Medical Aid has turned down their appeal for pre-authorisation. For Pete, as Daniel’s dad, not being able to cover everything and look after his son is a difficult situation to come to terms with. “The unavoidable truth is we are on our back foot financially and we would really appreciate any help we could get.”

The couple are appealing to anyone who would like to help them raise the money for their son’s treatment to come forward. If 500 people each contributed R500, Daniel would be able to have the treatment he needs and this loving, intelligent little boy will get the chance to live the full active life he was born to life.

All donations will be gratefully received. Donations can be made to the Help Daniel fund.

Account Name: P Camp

Standard Bank SA

Hillcrest branch

Branch Code 045726

Account Number: 256692270

Swift Code: SB ZA ZAJJ

Reference: Help Daniel