| …forces young mother to seek public assistanceAt merely 18 months old, Shafiyah Mohamed has already had two surgical interventions and today requires endless hospital visits and medication even as she awaits a bone marrow transplant to save her life.This has however not stopped the toddler from being almost normal.Shafiyah Mohamed seated on her mother’s lap.Although her playful ways and glowing infectious smile suggest that all is well in her world a glance at her right leg indicates a much different story; a very painful story of constant pain caused by a bacterium which has literally been eating away at her flesh and has already consumed her right hip bone.The cause of her dilemma has been linked to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. MRSA is said to be especially troublesome in hospitals, prisons,Nike Roshe Run Online Shop, schools, and nursing homes,Cheap Soccer Jerseys 2019, where patients with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of infection than the general public.The bacterium,Cheap Adidas Superstar, according to the child’s mother, Sandra Seepersaud, was however not detected until after the child underwent an operation at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).She recounted that it was shortly after turning one-year-old that little Shafiyah started exhibiting signs that something was wrong with her right foot. “She just start limping and getting a hot, hot fever; when I bathe she and rub her right foot she would cry and try to pull away. I realise something wrong but I didn’t really know is what happen.”As a result, the woman said one of her uncles decided to anoint the toddler’s foot to ascertain whether she had sustained an injury. By this time the young child’s upper thigh was swollen.This forced the woman to take her child to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where an x-ray of her right leg was done. While nothing was found to be wrong with any bone, Seepersaud said that the attending doctor there concluded that the child might have an infection of some sort. She was as a result administered an antibiotic suspension.During a subsequent visit to the hospital,Cheap Blues Jerseys, another x-ray was done and an internal abscess was detected by the attending doctor. “Right away he transfer she to the public hospital for more medical attention,” said a distraught Seepersaud.She recalled that soon after being examined at the Georgetown Public Hospital efforts were immediately made to rush the child to the operating theatre for a surgical procedure to the upper portion of the child’s thigh to remove the destructive bacterium.A few days later a doctor again examined the child’s foot and recognised that “everything didn’t clean out and they, he said,Cheap Adidas Superstar Shoes, have to carry her back and recheck it…and with that they carry she and burst she foot down further,” said Seepersaud.Having done this, the woman said that a doctor informed her that the child had an incurable bacterium and even insisted that she would have been brought to the hospital already infected.Young Shafiyah’s condition continued to deteriorate to such an extent that she was unable to eat and would only breastfeed, Seepersaud informed. “One, one time she would take PediaSure but she wasn’t eating too much. If she eat a little piece a bread that was plenty because she wasn’t taking nothing more…”The child would remain a patient at the hospital for almost one month before she was discharged in May last year in no better a condition than when she was admitted. There were constant hospital visits and medications were prescribed in abundance to help reduce the impact of the bacterium which was beginning to spread to the child’s private parts.So severe was the condition by last December that doctors at the public hospital made the suggestion to Seepersaud that she contemplate having the child’s right leg amputated to prevent the bacterium from spreading.“I come home and I tell me husband and one of he cousins put we on to this doctor at (St. Joseph) Mercy Hospital and he tell we that these kind of sick you does only pick it up in the hospital, not your home nor your community….”Although considerably strained for finances, Seepersaud said that she and her husband, who is an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, were able to accumulate funds for yet another operation. However satisfactory results were almost immediately realised.“Thank God that we go to he when we did but if we did know about he before it could have saved her from so much of pain,” said Seepersaud.Although the doctor has since indicated that he can undertake a bone marrow transplant to treat the bacterium he would first have to control it and bring it to a minimum in terms of impact before such an operation can be done. At the moment Shafiyah is required to take two injections twice daily. These are administered at home by a nurse from St Joseph Mercy Hospital.According to Seepersaud, the high cost of medications has effectively exhausted her family’s finances but there is yet more to be spent if her daughter is to gain a chance of a normal life.The distraught woman is appealing to caring members of the public and business organisations to lend a helping hand to fund her daughter’s recovery.Those desirous of rendering assistance can contact Seepersaud or one of her relatives on telephone numbers 265-5971,Cheap Kings Jerseys, 681-5967 or 678-3671. |
