Afterword

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There is no boundary of language, nationality, or faith in the parent’s love to his or her own children and sympathy from others with those loves. After the news in Japan was reported in Texas, U.S.A. and in Chihuahua, Mexico, the “Little Carlos Fund, U.S.A.” was established, giving priority to children of poverty in the Continent of North and South America.

Little Carlos and his family found an entrance to life. However, OK-432 therapy is still not available to many children who suffer from lymphatic malformations in foreign countries, and they have to lose their lives. Many are still stuck under the financial door.

Although a treatment method is found for a once deadly disease, its application still remains at a low end. We must make every effort to spread the treatment method throughout the world through contribution to academic journals, presentations at international conferences, education of the people who are not in the medical society, and another problem - solution for financial problems. It is a long way to conquer many diseases. Through Carlos’s case, I would like to convey these things. I hope the booklet can be of some help to the students who are groping for the way “that a doctor should be when treating a patient.”

Postscript: Item 1, Article 7-2 of the Drugs, Cosmetics and Medical Instruments Act provides about orphan drugs. OK-432 was named as an orphan drug in the Notification No. 41 of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and it was published in the official gazette (volume 1286).

The information I have provided in this presentation from the time of Carlos’s birth until getting in contact with Dr. Morino of the Japanese Embassy in Mexico is by courtesy of Mr. Yoshinori Nakai, Correspondent of the Mainichi Newspaper in Mexico from his article “A boy suffering from an intractable disease bets his ‘small life’ on Japan” in October 11, 1992 issue of Sunday Mainichi Weekly Magazine.

 

Shuhei Ogita