(Zaman Al Wasl)- Mohammed, Mahmood and Ali, three brothers from the Yarmouk camp south of Damascus have a genetic disease that affected their muscles and their ability to walk and move, which turned their and their parents’ lives into hell, especially with the siege forced on the camp.
Mohammed, 14, told Zaman Al Wasl that he started to feel difficulty in walking and jumping when he was 7 years old, and later he became unable to walk completely. Then his brother Moahmood, 10 years old, had the same symptoms and the same development, but their brother Ali who is still 7 years old, has started feel difficulty in walking, but still able to stand up and walk on his toes.
The father explained that his children have Duchenne Muscle Dystrophy disease, which is a genetic disease, affect male mainly.
Mohammed feels sad for his inability to walk, but what hurts him most that he had became a burden on his family and he cannot go to the bath or clean himself.
The three brothers had been disappointed due to lack of medical treatment and social support for their conditions, and the situation has been exaggerated with the siege forces on Yarmouk camp, which increased the need for income, that forced Mohammed to work on selling bread at a small stall in street.
The three boys cannot look after their selves or clean themselves, they even cannot go to the bathroom on their own, so they need special nappies for disabled people, which increased the financial burden on the family.
Om Mohammed, explained that she and her husband suffered of back and joints pain resulted from having to carry the heavy boys to move them from place to place or to help them in to go to the bathroom or change their clothes.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. It is one of nine types of muscular dystrophy and considered the most dangerous.
DMD is caused by an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact. Symptom onset is in early childhood, usually between ages 3 and 5-year-old.
The disease primarily affects boys, but in rare cases it can affect girls.
The disease first affects the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs and shoulders, and later the skeletal voluntary muscles in the arms, legs and trunkm but the the calves often are enlarged.
By the early teens, the heart and respiratory muscles also are affected, the majority of DMD patients die in their mid twenties.
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