An eight-month-old boy is in urgent need of a heart operation and his relatives are appealing to the general public to assist them with the finances to facilitate the child’s travel to India where the life-saving operation will be performed.
Kenneth Prince of Mahaica was diagnosed with congenital cyanotic heart disease four months ago. His grandmother Bernadette Jackson told Stabroek News that since the diagnosis the child’s condition has deteriorated rapidly and he is now a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
According to Dr S Chatterdeo of the Paediatric Ward of GPH the child is in need of urgent surgical intervention.
“He has lost weight and he is now just skin and bone and we have to feed him with a syringe,” the woman told this newspaper recently.
While the Ministry of Health has pitched in with the US$5,500 which is the cost of the operation at the Max Heart and Vascular Institute, New Delhi, India, there is still need for money to cover travelling expenses and accommodation for the grandmother.
The woman told Stabroek News that her daughter, Nicole Jackson is in such a distraught state over her son’s condition that she is unable to travel with him to India and it is now up to her to go with her grandson. She said because of their dire financial state the family is unable to pool together the resources to process the visas and the cost of the accommodation. Accommodation has been identified but the family would have to find the money, she said.
Jackson said that the child’s parents have now prepared the affidavit giving her permission to travel with the child and it is hoped that soon the processing of the visas would commence.
Jackson recalled that Kenneth was six weeks old when they observed that something was wrong with him because of how he was breathing as it sounded like he had a heavy chest cold. They took the child to the GPH but were told that he was too young to be treated for a cold and the mother should continue to breast feed. The problem persisted and the child was four months old when the heart problem was diagnosed.
Persons desirous of assisting the little boy to receive the life changing operation could deposit monies into Republic Bank account 217-9307 or contact the family on telephone number 622-7518.