The condition of seven-year-old Colleacia Harcourt, who has a malignant brain tumour, has worsened to partial paralysis even as her parents appeal again to the public to raise funds for an emergency operation to save her life.
The primary school student, who lives at Lichfield, West Coast Berbice, was diagnosed with the tumour over a month ago after she started experiencing intense headaches.
“She is paralysed now,” her father Travis Harcourt lamented yesterday to Stabroek News. He stated that his daughter has become paralysed on the right side of her body while there is restricted movement on her left side.
“We really need your help because our time is limited. Please help us save our daughter’s life. We love her a lot…she is just a child,” Harcourt said. “There is always tears in her mother’s eyes,” he added, while noting that the deadline for Colleacia to travel to Columbia for the surgery is May 23.
Neurosurgeon Dr Kester Nedd of the Design Neuroscience Center stated in a letter that Colleacia is in urgent need of a neurosurgical intervention due to an intra-ventricular mass that she developed about two months ago.
He stated that without medical intervention Colleacia would be at risk of developing a life threatening complication. He indicated that she was in need of pre-ops, neurological and endocrine work up and immediate craniotomy and ventriculostomy.
Harcourt is pleading with the Ministry of Health to release the funds which it had promised for her surgery. “It has been three weeks and we are still waiting on word from the ministry to help us,” he stated. The Ministry of Health had promised to donate $2 million for the surgery.
So Harcourt has been able to raise $2 million on his own. “‘People are not donating to the bank account. We are desperate because she is getting worse,” he said, adding his daughter has been unable to speak for days.
A week before school closed for the Easter vacation, Colleacia started experiencing headaches and vomiting. She was taken to the St Joseph Mercy Hospital for an MRI and it was there that her parents found out that she had tumour.
The type of the medical attention Colleacia needs is not available in Guyana. Her estimated fee for the surgery is $7 million, but this figure may increase since it does not cover possible complications, additional procedures and additional days of hospitalisation.
Harcourt stated that Colleacia is a loving and smart child who dreams of becoming a lawyer when she is older.
Donations could be made to Republic Bank account number: 7302698. For more information contact 6991005/6134422.
