ARMAN’S LIFE DEPENDS ON YOUR MERCY

rman-kostandyan
04:28 pm | February 26, 2010

Social

In November 2009, the world turned upside down for 10-year-old Arman
Kostandyan and his parents after Arman was diagnosed with aplastic
anemia.

Twelve patients currently undergo treatment in the Blood Transfusion
Center named after Professor R. Yolyan, another seven were discharge
after a full recovery. Immunosuppressive Therapy is frontline treatment
for individuals with congenital or acquired aplastic anemia.

If the organism is sensitive to drugs, the treatment gives the
desirable effect, otherwise the patient needs urgent bone marrow
transplantation.

Arman Kostandyan has been in the centre for three months. He mainly
spends his time drawing. The hospital walls are decorated with his
pictures. We noticed a Bible beside his brushes and paints. Arman
says he began reading the Bible in hospital.

"I want to read it up though the book is difficult for me," says Arman.

The ten-year-old boy believes that people are kind-hearted and
careful. He wishes to return to the family and play his brother.

Doctors say if Arman’s condition does not improve after six months
treatment, bone marrow transplantation will be required," Arman’s
father Aram Kostandyan told A1+.

The parents’ attempts to find a donor in the Armenian Bone Marrow
Donor Registry were in vain as they could not to find a match among
the 15 000 donors. The family has turned to famous foreign clinics
but they asked huge sums of money for the operation. Finally, in full
despair, they opened a bank account relying on the financial support
of the public.

"Many people contact us and hold a helping hand which means people
have lost their mercy," said the parents.

Munich’s Elite Medical Clinic has agreed to make the transplantation
of the bone marrow after the family pays ~@260 000. Arman’s parents
have not responded yet.

So far, the bank account has raised $3000-4000.