Clarendon grandmother seeks help for urgent heart surgery
Published:Friday | June 3, 2022 | 12:07 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Fifty-three-year-old Clarendon resident Evadney Morrison is in need of urgent heart surgery to clear blocked arteries and restore a sense of normality to her life, having been on a roller-coaster journey for the past five years.
The condition, known medically as atherosclerosis, is a thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a build-up of plaque in the inner lining. Some risk factors may include high blood pressure and diabetes.
Although unable to pinpoint when she developed the condition, Morrison said she began experiencing symptoms such as a persistent cough, wheezing, shortness of breath, and a tightness in the chest some years ago.
The symptoms would worsen every two to three months and her doctor later revealed they are evidence of heart failure.
Diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2008, by 2015, Morrison was having periodic blackouts and had suffered a mild heart attack.
Before these issues, she was also diagnosed with diabetes.
During an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday, she said that she has been unable to perform basic domestic activities, such as washing, cooking, and cleaning, and has to hire someone to undertake them.
“If I even go by the stove and do cook, I cannot stand up [for long]. I can’t do much bending either,” she disclosed.
Morrison, who has been in and out of the hospital since last year as a result of the severity of her symptoms, is now appealing to Jamaicans to assist in funding her $2 million surgery, which is set to be done at The University Hospital of the West Indies, St Andrew.
She has so far managed to save a little over $100,000 through her own fundraising efforts, such as a fish fry and by raising and selling poultry meat.
With the clock ticking, she is fearful that these efforts may not raise the required funds quickly enough as she wants to do the operation as soon as possible.
“I’m really in need. I’m suffering to come up with the funds. Anyone who reads the news and can help, I would be very much grateful for it,” she said.
Though a date for surgery has not yet been decided upon, Morrison is scheduled to visit her cardiologist on July 1 for an update.
Friends have been chipping in
She also admitted that it has been a struggle keeping up with her medication as one of the many drugs she has been prescribed costs $8,000, while another costs $24,000 and must be purchased every two months to relieve heart constriction.
Thankfully, some friends have been chipping in to purchase medication, while some drugs are supplied by the hospital.
With two grandchildren – aged five and seven years – caring for, she is hoping she will be able to live a while longer for their sake and to be as healthy as possible to look after them.
Morrison’s grandchildren are the survivors of a domestic attack, which claimed the life of their mother nearly three years ago.
Twenty-four-year-old Sherry-Ann Morrison died in July 2019 after being doused with a corrosive substance in their Four Paths, Clarendon home.
The children had to be hospitalised after suffering burns.
“Sometimes, to be honest, when my sickness tek me, I’m just praying to God and asking God to just help me to overcome so that I can see them through because they don’t really have anybody from their father side who stood up for them and see to it that they even eat and drink, so I have to try my best,” she said.
Her husband has also been off work since January after undergoing surgery to repair a hernia, and has, therefore, been unable to help her financially.
How you can help
If you can assist Evadney Morrison, contact her at (876) 856-0871.