While Madiha was born as a healthy child, it was not until she was about eighteen months old, that she started facing health challenges.
When her parents found that she struggled to eat and even breathe normally, they rushed her to the local hospital in the small town of Bijapur. She was misdiagnosed and treated for Tuberculosis then.
With no improvement in her health, Madiha’s parents consulted a child specialist in Bengaluru. While he correctly diagnosed her with Pompe disease, he was skeptical about her survival.
Not ones to lose hope, Madiha’s parents enquired persistently and searched extensively online, hoping there’s a treatment available for Pompe disease. Fortunately, in 2012 they learned that there was.
From the age of two, with all these years of treatment, Madiha now lives a near-normal life. She loves going to school, enjoys drawing and actively participates in games and races. She aspires to be a teacher when she grows up.