Doctors trying their best to save Pakistani child prodigy

A team of American doctors was taken on board on Monday by the Microsoft Corporation for the treatment of the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) Arfa Kareem while her disease remained a mystery to medical experts.
The family of the IT prodigy was also contacted by Microsoft owner Bill Gates’ aide to express the Gates’ wishes for Arfa’s health. Arfa, who was called “a new face of Pakistan in the world”, is still under intensive care after she suffered from an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest three weeks ago.
Arfa’s uncle, Tariq Randhawa, while talking to Pakistan Today denied that Bill Gates had contacted the family but said a Microsoft representative had conveyed his wishes for Arfa’s early recovery and informed the family that a panel of four doctors had been employed by Microsoft for consultations on Arfa’s mysterious disease.
The foreign doctors contacted Arfa’s Pakistani doctors and obtained her medical records and details about her illness over the internet.
Randhawa added that doctors from all over Pakistan and abroad were monitoring Arfa’s condition. He stated that the girl was still on life-support but her brain had shown signs of improvement and that the doctors were optimistic about her condition. He said the foreign doctors were also content about the medical facilities being provided to the child in Pakistan.
Arfa’s doctors had said earlier there were not enough facilities available in the country to shift the critical patient to another hospital.
However, her uncle told Pakistan Today that the doctors were not in favour of shifting the patient elsewhere until her condition became stable. He added that the family was satisfied with the medical care provided to Arfa.
Arfa’s medical records, including scans of her brain were also mailed to renowned medical experts in Australia and other countries.
According to the child’s family, she suffered from a seizure on December 22 which was followed by a cardiac arrest that affected the blood supply to the brain, limiting its efficiency. Doctors have not yet been able to identify the cause of her seizure.
Arfa was immediately taken to the Lahore CMH where she was admitted in the intensive care unit and put on a ventilator.
The doctors at CMH were hopeless about the girl’s recovery before the response from her brain was recorded.
Arfa’s father Col (retd) Amjad Kareem said her brain is now showing continuous activity and she has started to move her hands and feet.
Arfa, now 16 is a student of A-levels in Lahore. She won the title of the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of 9 in 2004. She was also invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Corporation’s headquarters in the US.
Piloting a plane at the age of 10 was also proof of Arfa’s astonishing skills.
She also received the President’s Award for the Pride of Performance at the same age and the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal from the government in 2005.
She was awarded the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award and became a brand ambassador for PTCL in 2010. Arfa’s family has asked the nation to pray for the recovery of the extraordinary girl.