We have been covering his story for over five years and tonight he's back in the news again. Christopher Bowman is suffering from a tumor that started in his chest area but has since spread across his body.
Bowman has gotten treatment abroad but there's still a major surgical procedure to be done to remove the tumor. The problem is that the surgery can only be done abroad and it's prohibitively expensive.
But if he is to survive, it needs to be done as soon as possible, because his condition is deteriorating. Andrea Polanco found out more:…
Andrea Polanco Reporting
We showed you Chris Bowman back in 2006 when he was leaving for Dallas, Texas for medical treatment for this rare vascular tumor that he has been living with for the past thirteen years. Chris returned in March of last year but since then his condition has worsened:
Chris Bowman
"I am going through a lot of hell right now where I am. I can't sleep well at night with this thing here, I get shortage of breathe about 3-4 times every night and I cannot sleep with it so good, it gives me problems. I already have problems to walk because this tumor is pressing on my spinal cord, its affecting my walking and so. I just came out of hospital before Christmas Eve because I nearly got paralyze, I can't even feel my feet, and my two feet bottom are hard all the way up to my hip. So I am trying to walk a little bit."
With all the health complications, Chris was once again in the hospital couple days ago. He needs medical attention abroad- but it comes with a price - one that the family can't pay: two hundred thousand U.S dollars:
Odessa Orosco, Mother
"We order the CT Cat Scan for him. Dr. Coyi told me that the tumor is eating the bone down to the spine and Christopher is getting paralyze, what can I do? I am just doing what I can right now for my son to ask for help."
Andrea Polanco
"So what Chris needs right now is the surgery to remove the tumor and that's the only thing that can help him?"
Odessa Orosco, Mother
"Christopher needs to get some procedures done. One of my friends told me that Christopher needs....they will put him under anesthesia and they will shrink down the tumor and later on Christopher will need about 4-5 surgeries but that surgery costs US$200.000.00, where will that come from for me?"
Andrea Polanco
"That's the money the family can't raise alone."
Odessa Orosco, Mother
"No ma'am."
Andrea Polanco
"So you were hospitalize right before Christmas? What did the doctor say to you?"
Chris Bowman
"They can't do anything to help me. I have to go out to get this surgery done because none of the doctors here can do it. They don't have the technologies here to do it here so they have to ship me out to get everything done."
A strong twenty three year old young man, who was the family's breadwinner is now weakened and slowly becoming immobile- so he has parked his shoe shine box and now relies on a stick to get around-but through all this Chris said that he won't give up:
Chris Bowman
"I will not give up, I will not lose hope because without hope you don't have nothing in life and you won't succeed."
Andrea Polanco
"How do you keep strong and do you keep positive with all that happening to you?"
Chris Bowman
"Well my church friends keep me in their prayers and they tell me to stay strong and don't worry because f you worry it will get worse in your body and it will end up destroying you. I have some good doctors that look over me for the past 10-13 years right now."
This family has nowhere else to turn and so they're asking for the public's assistance:
Odessa Orosco, Mother
"Anybody at all, please call Mr. Zabaneh for me and help my son. I don't want to lose him, I don't want to lose Chris. He is a good little boy."
Chris Bowman
"I just want to ask everybody if they can please support me some more because sickness is for anybody, it could happen to anybody and so on. I just want to ask them if they can please support me some more so I can get this over with so I could live a happy life."
If you'd like to help Chris Bowman you can call 626-8297 or make a contribution at Atlantic Bank account number: 210607379…
