Up to the age of two, Umar was not much different from other children. But when his peers started babbling and speaking their first comprehensible words, he did not make a sound. A year later, the delayed speech was followed by difficult breathing and wheezing, and his mother sounded the alarm.
A scan showed that papillomas had grown in his trachea and vocal cords. This meant that the growths had narrowed the airway, making it difficult for the child to breathe. Umar urgently needed a tracheostomy, a tube which enabled him to breathe, and he was sent to Moscow for surgery.
Surgeons in Moscow removed the papillomas, but that was not the end of the treatment. A T-shaped stent, which resembles a hollow tube, needs to be inserted to restore his larynx to normal.
Umar now sees a doctor regularly and is waiting for the stent to be inserted. Despite the tube in his larynx and his inability to speak, the boy is actively playing, running and building Lego structures.
As the family is from Kyrgyzstan, they have to pay for treatment in Russia. Umar's mother raises four-year-old Umar alone and is unable to pay for treatment. Her only hope is to get help from people who care.
In the future, his mother plans to apply for Russian citizenship, so that Umar can have free therapy with speech pathologists and speech therapists that he will need. But right now all her attention and energy is focused on her beloved son.
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