After two years of trying to raise funds for her daughter to travel to Miami for an operation, a Barbadian mother decided to look closer to home and ended up in Guyana at the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI), where the medical intervention was done on Saturday.
Tricia Haynes flew here on Wednesday last with eight-year-old Ayesha, who had a hole in her heart since birth. Breathing a sigh of relief that the day had finally come for her daughter to live a normal life, an overwhelmed Haynes said the option was always open for the non-invasive procedure to be done, but the funds were not available. Over a two-year period of public appeals that saw many donations coming in, she was still only able to accumulate half of the required US$33,000.
What did it cost her in Guyana? A fee of US$3,500 but money is currently the last thing on her mind since all she wants is to look little Ayesha in the eyes and say that everything is going to be okay from now on.
In an interview with Stabroek News on Saturday, the woman revealed that her doctor back home told her about CHI and also made the appointment after getting her consent.
The day it was confirmed that Ayesha would do the surgery in Guyana, Haynes recalled that she nearly burst with joy while the child was excited. She related that when Ayesha was just a year old, doctors diagnosed her with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), which is a form of congenital heart disease and had suggested open heart surgery for a later period of her life. But as Ayesha grew older and the procedure was explained to her, the child rejected it.
“Mommy, please don’t let them cut me open, please,” were the little girl’s exact words, according to the mother. Since it was Ayesha’s body, Haynes said she had no choice but to say no to open heart surgery. The next option was a non-invasive medical intervention using cutting-edge technology without surgically opening the chest, a procedure called digital catheterization.
CHI introduced the procedure last April when it conducted a medical clinic screening local children. Nine children had the procedure last year and the same doctor who led the team of specialists last year, Dr Makram Ebeid, was on hand yesterday to operate on Ayesha. Ebeid is an interventional paediatric cardiologist from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the United States who works closely with CHI.
Ayesha was admitted into hospital on Friday last and was eager to have the procedure done, Haynes said. However, when the time came for the operation the child started thinking about needles and got a bit fidgety, she later calmed down and went in the room. Two hours later, she emerged from the room sleeping after completing a successful operation. Haynes was outside the room waiting to see her daughter, her only child, who, she said, is a spirited little angel.
Dr Gary Stephens, Chief Executive Officer of CHI, told Stabroek News that the institute has worked hard since its establishment in October 2006 to keep standards high in addition to expanding its services. He said two local children diagnosed with similar conditions as Ayesha Haynes also had medical interventions on Saturday.
He said CHI’s aim is to keep the local programme viable so that it can be marketed outside Guyana. Stephens noted that part of the institute’s strategy is to be competitive throughout the Caribbean region and though it has only had one patient from a sister nation, there will soon be two then three and the number will eventually grow.
“We are hoping that in the future people will come here to take advantage of our comprehensive cardiac care programme but that requires us remaining strong and progressing which we are. Soon open heart surgeries will be routine here and we expect things to only get better,” he added.
