In Memory of My Young Friend, Abo

The sadness I feel is immense as I must inform all of the sudden passing of my young friend, Abo. After falling ill, Abo succumbed to meningitis in just a few days. This is a great shock. Abo was well loved by everyone who knew him.

In 2003, a few months after being introduced to the group by Lisa, Lisa had asked me to take a bigger role in the regular group chats and during one chat I met a young woman from Maldives who was residing in Sri Lanka. Her name was Akka. After the chat finished up, we continued to chat on MSN and Akka introduced me to several people, including a 10 year old boy called Abo. Abo became the youngest person to have ever joined our group. It was an almost surreal night for me as Akka introduced me to people from all over and really introduced me to a world I had never known much about. Abo and I became buddies on MSN and chatted regularly in those days. In 2006, I had the great honor of being a guest for International Thalassemia Day in the Maldives. There I met Abo and his mother and grandfather, along with several other family members. Akka, Shilpa and I were guests at their house for a wonderful lunch on one of the days during our trip. I will never forget their kind hospitality and I will never forget my young friend. I will miss him greatly.

This is an inconsolable pain that his family now bears. Please keep them in your prayers.

 

Andy,

I am very sad to hear this news,May God bless his soul,in these days when we call thal a manageable disorder its hard to swallow the fact that there are still so many kids dieing because of thal,my condolences to the family,Rest in peace Abo.

Zaini.

May his soul rest in peace... 

Umair

I want to clarify that as far as we know, Abo's illness was meningitis and had absolutely nothing to do with thalassemia. A sad reminder of the harshness of life.

My sincere condolences to Andy and Abo's family. May his soul rest in peace

manal

Yes, Abo had meningitis (a very deadly form of meningitis where the mortality rate is higher even within normal people)

A lot of the people were SPECULATING that Abo passed away so quickly (five days since he got meningitis, first three days was headache and vomitting and the next two days in a coma) due to his weakened immune system because thals "normaly" have a weak immune system...

BUT according to doctors, he dint have a weakened immune system because he was in great health. He dint have a low WBC count, his iron level below 800, no any other complications and on regular transfusions. The meningitis struck him just like it cud strike any other normal person and it took him away before they could even properly diagnose wat form of meningitis it was.

So yes Andy, it does show the how harsh life can be and it shows our argument from time to time is true, that there is no difference between thals and normals when it comes to death... Thallassemia was just there when another disease struck Abo and took him away, no one cud have predicted this... He was a healthy teenager with big dreams five days before that..

My prayers are with u, Abo, and may u be granted eternal paradise...

Abo had viral meningitis, which usually will resolve within a week to ten days, but because a number of different infections can cause viral meningitis, the outcome is related to the type of infection. Some of these infections which are borne by insects or rodents can be very deadly and have been found in a higher rate in parts of Asia, including Malyasia. Abo was in that very unlucky small percentage of patients who acquire a severe type of viral meningitis. It could not be predicted and there was little anyone could do. Because it is viral in nature, antibiotics have no effect.

This has hit me pretty hard. The ultimate unfairness of Abo's death has been very hard to accept. Thalassemia is hard enough to deal with, but when a random event like meningitis takes away the life of a young boy who was one of the happiest and nicest people I have ever met, it just leaves me asking why. Where is the fairness in life?

God rest his soul and comfort his family.

So yes Andy, it does show the how harsh life can be and it shows our argument from time to time is true, that there is no difference between thals and normals when it comes to death... Thallassemia was just there when another disease struck Abo and took him away, no one cud have predicted this... He was a healthy teenager with big dreams five days before that..

That's wat i tried to mention in this thread plz read :
Topic : what is the life span of thal major patient with regular transfusions and chelation ?  
http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=1643.0;highlight=life+span

i was trying to say in this thread that : all the things ( diseases , accidents and other things ) are to give a reason to deaht but not the cause of death , thes r nothing to make you die its only to give the reason to your death ... plz read that thread completely and you will find out more of my views abt it with details and logics to my views ... i hope that you all will agree to me what-ever i have said in that thread ..... plz read its nothing to wat you can feel dis-hearted or de-moralized , i hope it will help to make you feel better ...

May Abo's Soul rest in peace , and may GOD bless his family with strangth and courage to bare this loss  ...

Umair

May Abo rest in peace.  My condolences to his family and friends.

Jade

This is so sad.  I am so sorry to hear this Andy, my heart goes out to you and to Abo's family.  May his soul rest in peace. 

Sharmin