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Wheelchair-bound Charlestown youth desperately needs therapy
14-year-old Stephon Phillips
After removing a tumour from his spine, 14-year-old Stephon Phillips was told that he will be able to walk following therapy. Three years later he is still stuck in a wheel chair.
On Wednesday, the Charlestown Secondary School student visited Kaieteur News with his aunt in a quest for public assistance to pay for his therapy that could see him walking again.
Speaking with this newspaper, the Form One student said that when he was 11 years old he began having severe back pains and as such his mother took him to the doctor.
“I was crying out for pain and at first the doctors told my mother that it was a bone problem.”
According to him, following several examinations, an MRI showed that he had a tumour in his spine.
He was subsequently taken to a hospital in Trinidad where the tumor was surgically removed.
“After it was removed the doctors said that with therapy I will be able to walk but I am still not able to walk,” Phillips said. The teenager said that he is at present going once a week to the Ptolemy Reid Center for his therapy since his mother cannot afford private care for him.
“At first I used to go twice a week for therapy but now I only go once a week.”
He said his mother works in the Drainage and Irrigation Department within the Ministry of Agriculture so it is difficult for her to pay for private therapy.
The Charlestown teenager added that whilst many expected him to be depressed over the situation, he holds on to the thought that someday he will walk again.
“It never really bothers me…but I know I will walk again,” he said. Anyone who wishes to assist the teenager can call his mother Samantha Charles on telephone number 642-0939 or contact the Head teacher at the Charlestown Secondary School.
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