While most 12-year-olds worry about homework and the outcome of cricket matches, Parwez Ali’s days are spent outside hospital wards, pleading with strangers to help save his mother. Originally from Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, the boy brought his ailing mother to Mumbai after his father and other relatives allegedly began neglecting her.
Parvez Ali at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital. PIC/SHADAB KHAN
Parwez has been living with Shabana’s mother at Antop Hill since he was three years old and had been going to a civic-run school in Wadala. He was in Std IV in 2024 when he returned to his hometown and brought his mother from UP to Mumbai for treatment.
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“When doctors in our village told my father that they could not treat my mother, he did not take her to any major hospital in UP, and her health deteriorated further. After that, they began telling her to leave the house. She would call me and keep saying that she was in a lot of pain and that my father was not taking her to the doctor despite her repeated complaints. That`s when I decided that I would bring her here,” said the boy.
The issue
Parwez Ali and his mother, Shabana
According to a doctor at Sion Hospital, where Shabana was admitted on February 1, she is being treated for rectourethral and rectovaginal fistulas. “The doctors who treated her earlier should not have left her treatment mid-way, as it gets difficult to accept such patients, considering the risk involved. However, the boy pleaded so much that the administration couldn’t be inhuman. She needs an abdominal exploration with recto muscle flap and omental interposition. While treatment at Sion Hospital is at subsidised rates, there is some amount that needs to be paid,” the doctor said.
Treatment stopped
Parwez Ali (in green) and a social work tender to Shabana at KEM Hospital in 2024. Pic/By Special Arrangement
Shabana underwent a colostomy at KEM Hospital two years ago. However, after that, Parwez alleged that doctors refused to treat her further. “They said they couldn’t keep her in the hospital and treat her further, as we were unable to make the payments and that they do not have the manpower to constantly keep a check on her. They made us sign a form to discharge her against medical advice, and my mother left with her organs outside her body in a bag,” said Parwez.
Medical expenses
As a doctor from a private hospital will perform the surgery, considering the complexity. “Despite the doctor agreeing to charge just a nominal amount, the boy is required to pay Rs 60,000. Also, Shabana will require multiple surgeries in the coming months, the total cost of which would reach a total of at least Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh,” said the doctor.
Education on pause
The lack of family support amid this crisis has forced Parwez to sacrifice schooling. “I stopped going to school a year ago. I do not have any option. I have to run around asking for help, and also sit at my mother’s bedside to take care of her. Where do I have the time to go to school? I just pray that we get some help and my mother gets well soon so that I can resume academics and become educated enough to earn a decent livelihood for us,” the boy said.
