Dear Editor,
Rupert Williams, 53, of Burn Bush Dam, East Canje, has been bed- ridden for the past 2 years suffering with aches and pains to his upper body, and has been rapidly pining away.
When I visited the gentleman at his niece’s home he was lying in bed, barely able to move and was in so much pain that he started to cry when a little help was rendered to him to allow his neck a different posture on the pillow he used to support his head.
He is married with four children. Now being bed- ridden he is unable to provide for his family. His wife is a teacher and was transferred from New Amsterdam to the Upper Corentyne earlier this year. Mr Williams reported to me that he had to take one of his daughters out of school so that she could take care of him.
A minibus driver for many years, he said that his first feeling of illness was in October of 2005 after he sort of strained a muscle in his back as he entered his minibus for the routine day’s work.
He said that he felt tremendous numbness in the right leg and had it covered with Plaster of Paris. Then it got worse. The pains became more severe to his back and upper body. He couldn’t support himself anymore by walking and moving around. He couldn’t position his body as he liked. He visited several doctors, all of whom took x-rays, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
“He don’t have any fracture, no breakage,” his sister told me as she showed the x-rays.
He visited the New Amsterdam Public Hospital but there again the illness baffled the specialists as to the cause of his rapid weight- loss and traumatic pains to the upper body.
He said that he desires to go to the Mercy Hospital. He believes he has a spinal cord disease whereby the ligaments of the muscles are being ‘eaten-away’.
His sister who lives in Cumberland Village takes care of him on a daily basis. She related to me that she would like to know what is causing this to her brother. She expressed disappointment in the health services being delivered at the New Amsterdam Hospital, up to this point the doctors at that institution cannot diagnose the illness that is affecting her brother. She said they released him after he spent about three months in the hospital earlier this year in a state that hardly describes a patient being well.
The doctors, she said, told her that they don’t know what is wrong with him and they believe that it may be a disease in the spinal cord that is causing the illness. She said that they gave her vitamins, Ferrol Compound, and Cod Liver Oil capsules after discharging him and advised him to start visiting the hospital’s clinic.
This man is very ill and desperately needs medical attention.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J Suseran
