Seven-year-old Gabrielle Baker has been fighting cancer for the last three years. She has also lost her hearing and is suffering from another rare illness but remains a cheerful and spirited child.

7-y-o fights cancer, deafness, flesh-eating bacteria

14 Feb 2022/Carl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer

MAYBE BECAUSE of her age, she doesn’t fully understand the severity of her situation and so she remains upbeat. Or maybe it’s a mother’s faith in God manifesting itself through a child.

Whatever it is, seven-year-old Gabrielle Baker is showing the spirit needed to overcome adversity as she battles acute myeloid leukaemia and acute lymphocytic leukaemia, having been diagnosed with cancer in May 2018 when she was only four years old.

If that wasn’t enough, Gabby, as her mother, Monae Barnett, 28, affectionately calls her, was confirmed as having necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacteria, in 2019.

Gabby began losing her hearing that same year. Initial tests confirmed she had severe hearing loss, with further tests adjusting the diagnosis to profound hearing loss.

Since her hearing loss, Gabby has been enrolled at the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf in Cassia Park.

Research shows that sudden deafness can be caused by several factors, including exposure to certain drugs that treat cancer, or severe infections.

A week ago, Gabby, her twoyear-old brother, and her mom, from Portmore, St Catherine, were part of a group of 10 children with cancer who received a Dream Weekend from Moon Palace’s charitable arm, Palace Foundation.

General manager for the foundation, Natalie Boreland, said 10 children, their siblings, and parents numbering around 40 persons in total accepted the invitation.

“Trust me, it’s a really good break,” Barnett said of the offer.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

Speaking to The Gleaner, Barnett said of her daughter: “She is one of them special-age child that goes above and beyond their abilities.”

Barnett said her daughter was vomiting, having diarrhoea, fever, and had cold bumps all over her body that wouldn’t go away. Then her tummy suddenly started to grow.

At the hospital, the first diagnosis was wax and cannon (kernel), caused by an ingrown toenail that she had. Medication failed to help, so the mother took her back to see the doctor.

“There was this specific doctor

who said all the signs are leading down the road to cancer. We got a little scared, but I was like – ‘Listen, we can do this!’ ”Barnett explained.

“The night she was diagnosed, the Friday, they told us, these are the signs. The Saturday, they confirmed it that she had leukaemia. We actually cried the Friday night. So, confirming it, we were already prepared. My motherin-law, my mother, support from churches, friends, family, they all came together and they supported us throughout.”

Like any good mother, Barnett began preparing her child to deal with the cancer. Gabby lost her hearing and her hair. After chemotherapy in 2018, Gabby returned to school the following year.

But, by the second week in September, she suffered a bruise and became ill. The initial diagnosis was cellulitis but they later discovered she had necrotising fasciitis, which is not common in Jamaica. The threat of amputation was real.

“They were treating her for it and, for some reason, she started having seizures, uncontrollable seizures. So they had to induce coma to get the brain to relax to stop the seizures. So she was in ICU for a little while,” said Barnett.

The treatment – including a skin graft on her leg, removing the dead bacteria – saved the leg.

MORE TRIALS

But that wasn’t the end of Gabby’s trials and tribulations. The cancer was now in remission, but her mother began noticing that, when she was watching television, the volume was set four times higher than usual.

In despair, her mother took a vuvuzela and blew it close to her but she didn’t respond.

Medical examinations showed that Gabby had profound hearing loss, with a cochlear implant the only viable intervention.

Barnett said the family has had difficulties coping.

“It’s hard, but I have to know that I have to do this, because at the end of the day, I’m the only biological parent for her in her life. Mi one girl pickney, and, if I have to do this, I have to do this in order to get it done for her,” she asserted.

Despite the hardships, Barnett said she’s optimistic that Gabby’s fortunes will soon change.

“She is a miracle baby, trust me. When she was just diagnosed, we had this song that we used to sing: ‘Jesus say so, that everything is gonna be (all right)’. She kept singing that song straight through. Even starting chemo, she was always bubbly-like,” said the mother.

Persons who want to assist Gabby may contact her mom Monae Barnett at 876-830-7084.

 

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