5-y-o Jermaine Taylor gets new pacemaker installed

Five-year-old Jermaine Taylor successfully underwent an operation on Wednesday to have a new pacemaker implanted, following an appeal that galvanised the Jamaican diaspora around him to get the much-needed surgery.

Jermaine’s plight had been highlighted by The Gleaner, setting off a chain of events that culminated in Wednesday’s successful outcome.

“I want to thank everyone who reached out to assist. A heavy weight has been lifted, and I want everyone to know how thankful we the family are for the assistance rendered,” his mother, Lorraine Hayes, told The Gleaner.

The operation was done at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, with the procedure being performed by Dr Sherard Little.

Hayes said the doctors have advised that he should be released from the hospital in the following five days.

She thanked the doctors, nurses, and everyone involved in ensuring the successful outcome of her son’s procedure.

Hayes had previously told The Gleaner that two weeks after Jermaine was born, it was found that he had a heart defect. He was transferred from the Victoria Jubilee Hospital to Bustamante Children’s Hospital, where a pacemaker was placed in his heart.

That pacemaker needed replacing as Jermaine’s heart function had become poor.

His mother told The Gleaner that the pacemaker was in need of replacement and the family was unable to come up with the US$22,100 needed to purchase the new device.

The device was sourced in the United States, and the doctors at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital said that they would perform the procedure to implant the device if and when it was purchased.

The family had set up a GoFundMe to try and raise the necessary funds to purchase the device but it did not gain any traction.

Contact was made with Dr Robert Clarke, head of the Jamaican Physicians Association, senior medical adviser to the Diaspora Northeast, and a family friend, who, in turn, reached out to The Gleaner for help.

Jamaica’s Consul General in New York, Alsion Wilson, who had also been informed of Jermaine’s plight, jumped on board and raised the necessary funds to purchase the pacemaker.

She told The Gleaner that she was very happy at the successful outcome of his procedure.

“I am happy that we were able to help Jermaine and revel in the successful outcome, but I am still concerned about the other children at Bustamante Hospital who are in need of similar devices,” she said.

Wilson thanked the newspaper for bringing Jermaine’s need to her attention and also extended her thanks to Hartford Hospital in Connecticut for its assistance in securing the device.

“I hope to meet Jermaine sometime in the near future. He has a bright future, and he can now do all the things a five-year-old does,” she said.

Help Jamaica

Clarke, who is also head of Help Jamaica Medical Mission and East Orange Medical Service in East Orange, New Jersey, said the plight of young Jermaine was brought to his attention by Sonia Samuels, aunt of Jermaine, and he reached out to the family to offer whatever help he could give.

“I discussed his situation with the board of Help Jamaica Medical Mission, and it was decided that the organisation would spearhead the drive to help raise the funds for young Jermaine,” said Clarke.

Medical Mission, which has been in existence since 2010, is a 501 C3 non-profit organisation that has undertaken a number of medical missions to Jamaica as well as other parts of the Caribbean and Africa.

“We cannot take on all cases that come to our attention, but I believe that this was a special case,” he told The Gleaner.

Clarke believes that some cases are very special and deserving of assistance and Jermaine’s was one such.

“We in the diaspora can help, and I am extremely happy at the successful outcome of this case,” he said.

Clarke had been in constant touch with the doctors in Jamaica who were treating Jermaine as he monitored the situation.