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4-year-old in need of heart surgery overseas, continues to battle for life
By Anastayca Peters
Being told by a doctor that there is nothing that can be done locally to save your child’s life is probably the most difficult thing a mother could ever hear. But in the case of 22-year-old Rewinna David, she has been given this devastating news countless times by several local doctors who have exhausted all their resources in helping to treat her ailing four-year-old son, Junior Kentolall.
The ailing four-year-old, Junior Kentolall
The toddler was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, a condition in which the heart valves are permanently damaged by rheumatic fever. This condition also causes internal damage to other organs.
Based on a medical assessment, the woman said that she was told that her child has to undergo surgery to replace the damaged heart valves. With each passing day, the child’s condition worsens.
According to a physician, GPHC does not have the expertise or medications to help the child.
Since her son’s diagnosis two years ago, Ms. David, who has two other children, said she has been experiencing sleepless nights.
Due to the diagnosis he currently hospitalised at the Paediatric Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. He is receiving medications to ease severe abdominal pain, respiratory issues and headaches he is experiencing.
However, the medications do not do much for him. On March 16, 2020, the child’s organs started to swell and this resulted in him suffering severe pains that the medications did not ease.
According to doctors, the corrective surgery for the child can be done in Colombia. But the surgery cost a whopping USD$42,800. Travelling and hotel accommodation will push this cost up.
As of last month, two international children hospitals, namely the Caribbean Children Foundation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, have volunteered to do the corrective surgery for the lad. However, due to the global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the surgery was put off.
A recent heart scan done by local doctors showed that Kentolall is in need of a new heart because the current one is so severely damaged.
“I does can’t look at my child without crying; everyday he got to take over seven injections because of what is happening to him. As a mother, I don’t want anything to happen to my child,” the woman related even as she shared her optimism, he eventually get the needed medical attention. This is despite the advice from doctors to prepare for the worse. According to David, “yesterday a doctor told me that he will not make it back out from the hospital alive but I am a Christian and I know that there is a God and that same God will heal my child,” she prophesied.
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