Baby diagnosed with rare, life threatening disease
Posted By: Sarah Fili
sfili@klkntv.com
An 8 month old Lincoln boy has been diagnosed with a rare, life threatening disease. If not treated, the diseases life expectancy is 10 years of age.
Faruq Clark is the youngest of five children. When his mother, Deondra Clark, was pregnant with her first son Matthew Jr. she was tested and told she was not a carrier of the disease. Two months after he was born, he was diagnosed with Chronic Grabulomatous Disease. That means his body cannot fight bacteria or fungus; he has little to no immune system.
The Clark family has dealt with this disease before. Faruq’s mom, Deondra, lost her older brother and her uncle to CGD.
Now, Faruq’s older sister, just 5 years old, will donate her bone marrow to him, in hopes of saving his life.
"It just worries me because we don’t have a good history with this disease you know, and so we’re just this is the third time that our family has faced this and we’re hoping for a different outcome this time," Deondra Clark, Faruq’s mother, said.
Doctors tell the family the high risk transplant will give Faruq’s body the ability to build an immune system based off his sister’s donation.
Another blow to the family, Deondra says traditionally with the disease, women are carriers and 80 to 90% of the time, males are the ones who suffer from it. Now, Deondra worries about her two daughters passing it on to their children.
The transplant, as well as the family’s medical bills, are costly. The Clark family is hosting a fundraiser Wednesday, May 25th and 7:30 p.m. at the Funny Bone in Omaha. It will be a comedy show, featuring John Bush and Richard Reese. The Funny Bone’s address is 17305 Davenport St, Suite 201. They also have a go fund me page, click here to go to it: https://www.gofundme.com/c2c3a8d8
To buy tickets to the show, click here: https://www.standup-media.com/comedyreservation/fullprocessing/sectionselection.aspx?csid=4bd6a7c7-4ed4-463a-b459-002f0933749c&clubid=84B1EEA2-D6B1-4A35-8207-0BE7D2939066
