9-y-o Joel needs a heart for Christmas

WESTERN BUREAU:

Nine-year-old Joel Dawkins woke up another morning in the children’s ward at the Falmouth Hospital, his heart still capable of skipping a beat. The youngster, who needs a heart transplant, knows time is against him.

Joel, who suffered heart failure in October, has been spending most of his days between the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St Andrew and Falmouth, Trelawny.

His mother, Nasia Needham, was forced to move him back to Falmouth because she was drowning in expenses travelling from Montego Bay to the Bustamante Hospital to visit him.

She told The Gleaner that Joel, who attends Emann Preparatory School, started complaining of a bellyache in August.

“The part of his belly under his rib cage was paining him, so I took him to the doctor. They said maybe he had worms and his bowels needed flushing out,” Needham said, relating the painful three-month trajectory of her son’s illness.

Despite a series of treatments, the youngster still complained of a bellyache. By now, his abdomen had become stiff and the diagnosis was “another bowel issue and more medication”.

After the second round of medication yielded no improvement, Needham sought a second opinion from a more experienced medical practitioner, who diagnosed the youngster with acid reflux.

“He was having breathing problems, wasn’t able to consume any food, was always tired, so that doctor also gave him medication,” she shared.

Things took a turn for worse, Needham said, when she was jolted from a dream that all her teeth had fallen out into her hand.

“While I dreamt, I heard him calling out, ‘Mommy, Mommy!’ I jumped up and saw him standing over me, saying he could not sleep so he was asking to sleep in my bed. But while he slept, I listened to his breathing and he sounded like he was running out of breath,” she recalled.

NO INITIAL DIAGNOSIS

Needham rushed her son to the Falmouth Hospital, where a regular checkup failed to identify the problem.

She insisted she was not bringing him back home without answers, convinced something was terribly wrong with her child.

Subsequent tests revealed that Joel’s kidney and liver were failing and his lungs were filled with water. A CT scan showed his heart was swollen.

“He was rushed to the Bustamante Hospital in Kingston, where he was being treated. However, the doctors there said they could not help him further because he needs a heart transplant; his heart is irreparable,” said the mother of three, quickly losing hope with the fact there is no facility offering heart transplants in Jamaica and neither could they afford it.

According to Needham, the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Miami offers the surgery, but it will not accept young Joel because he does not have life insurance.

“The cost would really be hectic, so they have declined to take him. However, the Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Miami say they will accept him, but for them to accept him, we will have to have US$500,000 and that does not include airlift,” she told The Gleaner.

While the local hospitals cannot do much for Joel, they have continued to provide a haven medicating him. Once the medication is working, it is normal for them to send home the patient, but in Joel’s case, the risk is too great.

“His muscles have gotten so thin and his heart can stop at any given time. He really does need a heart transplant,” Needham said, almost at her wits’ end as Joel, renowned as a brilliant student, asks about going home for Christmas to be with his family.

“He doesn’t want Christmas to catch him there, so I honestly don’t know what to tell him because he can’t leave the hospital and he doesn’t want to be there for Christmas,” the sound of gloom resonating in her voice. “If I talk with him, he is asking, ‘What are we going to be doing for Christmas?’”

Needham says she does not know how to answer him as she does not want to paint doubt in his mind as he will be devastated.

The mother of three is hoping people near and far will help to save the life of a youngster with a bright future, whose family does not have the means to give him a fighting chance at life.

“I don’t want to see my little boy die. Joel is the first and only boy for me. I don’t know where his father is. I have cried so much. I have honestly run out of tears. I have to programme my mind not to cry when I go around him because smiling works,” she said.

Doctors have not shared how much longer they believe Joel can live on medication. All they are willing to say, Needham disclosed, is that he needs a heart transplant.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com

How you can help

If you would like to help young Joel Dawkins, contact his mom, Nasia Needham, at (876) 470-3072.