Mickele gets a white Christmas - Mom, son experience first snowstorm on the mend in New York

When Shereen Grindley looked at her five-year-old son Mickele Allen that frightful Sunday a month ago, moments after he was savagely bitten by a pack of dogs on his way to the shop, she was not certain he would survive. But after a whirlwind of support from Good Samaritans at home and abroad, the now six-year-old Mickele and his mom are looking forward to a special Christmas feeling blessed and happy.

It will be joy all around when Mickele is released from the Montefiore Children’s Hospital in the Bronx, New York. He is expected to be discharged today or tomorrow, just days before the holidays.

“I did not know if his life would be spared. Everybody thought he would die,” Grindley told The Sunday Gleaner.

The attack had left Mickele with 50 to 60 per cent of his scalp torn away as well as most of his forehead, the left ear and a part of his left cheek, according to Dr Evan Garfein, chief of plastic surgery at the Montefiore Children’s Hospital, who operated on Mickele.

It would require several operations, including reconstructive and plastic surgery, to turn things around and set Mickele on the path to recovery.

When The Sunday Gleaner spoke with Mickele from his hospital room days before his release, he said he was doing well.

“I am fine,” he beamed.

“I played in the snow,” said Mickele, who had his first experience with snow as he went out with the doctor who performed his surgery. They made snowballs and threw at each other.

As for his mother, she watched the snow falling from her window and said it looked scary.

“I did go out in the snow, but I did not join in snowball fight as it was too cold,” Grindley said.

First snowstorm

The mother and son, who hail from St D’Acre in St Ann, experienced their first snowstorm last Wednesday into Thursday, which dumped more than 12 inches of snow in the Bronx, adding another dimension to a New York experience neither will ever forget.

“For a minute, I was scared [as] I was looking out the window,” Grindley admitted. “Later I went out and had my very first taste of snow.”

It is a strange but joyous Christmas for Grindley. Strange because she is spending her first Christmas away from Jamaica and away from her other seven children and family members for the first time. Happy because Mickele is alive and she considers it a miracle that they are able to spend Christmas together at all – albeit in a strange land.

“Wow! You can’t know how much more amazing this is. I am so glad,” she told The Sunday Gleaner. “I am blessed and beyond happy. I am spending Christmas, New Year and beyond with my son.”

She revealed that they will remain in New York for the Christmas holidays and that a departure date has not yet been finalised.

“That is a small compensation to pay for having my son well and with me,” she said, adding that her mom is taking care of her other children in Jamaica.

“It was very difficult to leave them, but it was for the good of Mickele,” she said.

She said that at first she thought about how she was going to manage in a foreign land, and that at first Mickele was crying, but he later settled down and played with other children.

“He was eating chicken and dumplings every day. He was not accustomed to the food. It was hard to get used to,” Grindley said.

Mickele celebrated his sixth birthday at the hospital and received many gifts and toys. His mother said that on their return to Jamaica, some of the toys will be donated to the school he attends.

She is giving thanks to God and the doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, who went beyond the call of duty to take care of her son and reassure her that everything would be fine.

She thanked the staff of the Alexandria and the St Ann’s Bay hospitals, both in St Ann, and the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St Andrew for all that they did to save her son.

“As for Montefiore Hospital, in a couple of months, I will be able to find the words to express my appreciation for them. Right now, I am so overwhelmed by what they have done for my son. I am thankful and blessed,” she said.

Mickele will soon be released from the hospital as no complications were found to be associated with his surgery.

It is the culmination of a joint effort by several people and organisations, who rallied and played important roles in assisting the mother and son to go to New York for the life-saving surgeries.

Among them were Dennis Stanberry, an employee at Montefiore Hospital and head of MochoVillage Incorporated, a Bronx-based non-profit; and World Media Television’s Andrew McGlone, who took two days to find the funding needed to make Mickele’s transfer to the United States a reality.

Also assisting the mother and son are Claudette Powell; the Northeast Healthcare Committee, which has provided necessary assistance to them; and many donors and well-wishers who have made the difficult road easier to walk.

So Grindley and her entire family, including Mickele, will have a thankful Christmas, happy that he is alive and on the mend, thanks to Santa’s many elves.

editorial@gleanerjm.com