West Ruimveldt pupil needs help for life-saving surgery

As she lay helpless in the arms of her tearful mother, there was barely a flicker of life in the tiny body of eight-year-old Fazeela Shaffie. The once sprightly and bubbly lass has since August been reduced to a fraction of her former self. She is the eldest of three siblings born to Fizal Shaffie and Kamela Bachu of 57 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, but today she is the baby of the household as she is unable to eat, walk and even talk.

Fizal Shaffie and his wife Kamela Bachu with their sick daughter

Her condition has been linked to a growing tumour in her brain, a medical prognosis which was offered by officials of the St Joseph Mercy Hospital following a CT scan done there.  A surgical operation had since been conducted on the child to remove excess fluid from her brain, but medical officials have since recommended that the tumour be removed overseas.
This procedure, according to reports from the Mount Hope Children’s Hospital in Trinidad, is expected to cost some G$5 million, which the family can ill-afford to accumulate on their own. As such they are seeking assistance from business organisations and caring members of the public.
According to Bachu, the first signs of her daughter’s ailment were in fact taken for granted. She revealed that the child would appear to be tired all the time, had constant headaches and seemed to have a difficulty seeing and loss of appetite.
“We thought was tricks she playing because she didn’t want to go to school but she just start getting worse,” recounted the distraught woman as she cuddled her daughter close to her chest. “She would just come home and lay down on the ground and fall to sleep…even the teacher tell we how this child drowsy all the time.”
Having recognised that something was wrong, the woman said that she took her daughter, who was by then suffering from severe bouts of vomiting, to the GPHC, where a doctor revealed that she had an infection.
The child was admitted to the public hospital for two weeks. Her condition subsequently improved but on September 1, the child took a turn for the worse.
“We took she back to the public hospital and they say they never see a sick like this…They tell we carry she home back because they can’t do nothing about it,” said a tearful Bachu. A number of tests, she recounted, were carried out on the child, including eye examinations.
The struggling couple made the decision to put together all their finances and took the child to the Woodlands Hospital where an ultrasound was done. She was also given saline. They were advised to take the child to the St Joseph Mercy Hospital to have the CT Scan done following which the tumour was detected.
Armed with the CT Scan, the couple was forced to return their child to the GPHC for medical attention.
According to a correspondence dated November 23, 2012, from the GPHC, the child is currently a patient of its Neurosurgery Clinic and has presented with generalised headache, loss of appetite, photophobia and temporary aphasia. The correspondence adds that “the patient has deteriorated over the last few weeks and a MRI of the brain was ordered with contrast which revealed Suprasellar lesion extending into the dorsum sella; with anterior extension into the floor of the anterior fossa and cavernous sinus; right sided mass effect and effacement of the third ventricles and hydrocephalous.”
The correspondence states too that the patient was admitted on November 15, 2012 and a VP shunt was done by Professor Ivor Crandon from Jamaica. It was also noted that the child’s evolution on the ward was satisfactory and she was discharged four days post operatively. Professor Crandon has however recommended that the resection of the tumour be done overseas.
The family has since been in contact with the Mount Hope Hospital to have the further procedure undertaken. They have however not been able to secure any financial assistance to aid the process which is being deemed urgent.
Those who are desirous of rendering assistance towards the West Ruimveldt Primary pupil’s surgery can do so by making financial contributions to Citizens Bank Account 6789 or contact her parents on telephone numbers 231-8633 or 687-3582.