King Mohammed VI Covers Medical Costs of Senegalese Boy for Over a Decade

Rabat – King Mohammed VI accepted a 2004 request from a Senegalese woman to allow herself and her son, Mohammed Mounirou Anne, to travel to Morocco so that he could be treated from a rare congenital disease called Prune Belly Syndrome. 

According to a report by Telquel, the royal palace agreed to support the child during his time in the kingdom.

The boy and his mother, Nedeye Mbaye Khewe, live in Dakar – the capital of a country that does have the necessary treatment options available for Anne’s disease, which occurs, on average, in one of every 40,000 births.

“In Senegal, no one speaks of the disease,” the divorced and single mother said of the disease, which causes the absence of essential abdominal muscles. “They say it does not affect enough people and that we should not dwell on them.”

Anne’s attending physician advised Khewe to head to Morocco as his condition worsened. Khewe submitted a letter and a her son’s full medical record to the Moroccan embassy in Dakar in 2004.

Around 15 days later, the embassy called back to inform Khewe that she and her son were welcome to visit the Sheikh Zaid University Hospital of Rabat for medical attention.

Since 2005, the family’s airfare and hospital costs have been covered by the royal palace. When the pair arrived in Morocco, the boy’s medical team, including an anesthesiologist and pediatrician, greeted them and explained to them the details of the disease and potential treatment plans, the mother said, referring to her first month and a half long visit as “intense.”

Every two years since then, Anne, now 14 years old, has returned to Rabat for a check-up for his disease, Life expectancy for patients born with the disease is just a few years.

Khewe said she wanted to thank the king personally for his support, adding “my son carries a picture of the king everywhere with him.”