Campaign fails to save baby with fatal disease

SAKARYA

An 8-month-old baby with a fatal disease died in the Marmara province of Sakarya on May 22 after a campaign to raise money for the infant’s treatment failed to raise enough funds, Doğan News Agency has reported.
  
The boy, Eymen Çapkın, was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic disease affecting the part of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movement.

An aid campaign was organized to buy medicines worth 561,000 dollars (around 2 million Turkish Liras) for the child’s treatment by the Sakarya Governor’s Office in March. The campaign, however, failed to raise enough money despite the efforts of volunteers, including the chairs of sports clubs.
    
Some 300,000 dollars (1.07 million liras) were reportedly still required to secure medicine for the baby’s treatment when he died. 

Çapkın had been hooked up to a respirator at the Sakarya Birth and Children’s Hospital for the past 2.5 months. 

The boy’s parents reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown after his death was announced.