Eleven-year-old Ottey Simon is amazing doctors with her upbeat attitude and energetic spirits while undergoing last-chance chemotherapy to treat the growing tumour that has been threatening to take over her face.
The St Cuthbert’s Mission girl is being treated at the University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital (UAB) in the USA and so far the treatments have caused a tremendous reduction in the size of the tumour, missionary Jerry Davidson, who was instrumental in getting the child to the US, has said.
Davidson told Stabroek News (SN) that doctors have said that Simon would soon be undergoing radiotherapy and they are hopeful that reconstructive surgery could restore the child’s face.
The tumour grew out of Simon’s left eye, took over the left side of her face and was spreading to the other side. It has destroyed her left eye and damaged the bone structure on part of her face and part of her skull, but doctors hope that her right eye can be saved. Ottey and her mother Agnes are in the US on a six-month visitor’s visa for which they will need an extension as treatment would exceed that time. Niles Cole, Media Spokesperson/Vice Consul, at the US Embassy in Guyana said that they would assist with getting the extension on the visas.
The UAB is treating Simon free of cost. It is situated in the Medical District of Birmingham on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus among research centres and clinics. The 900-bed facility provides a range of primary and specialty care services, as well as the most up-to-date treatments and innovations in health care. Ottey and Agnes are staying at the Hope Lodge in Birmingham, Alabama. It is a non-profit organisation run by the American Cancer Society which provides lodging free of charge for patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments.
In an interview with SN last year Agnes said that Ottey loved school and had no obvious physical problem until last February when they noticed that some small boils had appeared around her left eye. Ottey then began to complain about a persistent headache and as the boils started to grow, Agnes said she took her daughter to several doctors but none could help the child. She said prior to the tumour her daughter was always at the top of her class and even with the constant headaches she was determined to write the Secondary School’s Entrance Examination (SSEE). Ottey had forced herself to go to school and to write the SSEE and although she left many of the questions unanswered her parents have said that they were happy with her performance.
Davidson told this newspaper that initially the US doctors had said that there was nothing they could do for the child and they were prepared to send her back to Guyana with some medication and the dire prediction that she had no more than six months to live. However, one doctor at the hospital said he wanted to try chemotherapy and they were all amazed at the reduction of the tumour after the treatment began.
He said Ottey is now in the third stage of the treatment and she is in hospital four days per week. Davidson said the doctors were amazed that the child was not in a coma and even more amazed that she is so energetic during the treatment with the only effect being the loss of her hair. He said his wife would be taking the child’s fallen locks and sewing them on to a cap so she could wear it when she goes out. Davidson said church members, from time to time, had taken both Ottey and her mother out for visits and they spent the Christmas holidays at his home. He said this is the fourth Guyanese child with an unusual illness that he has helped to obtain treatment in the US. (Oluatoyin Alleyne)