Dad pleads for more help to support teen burn victim
Published:Monday | January 6, 2025 | 12:10 AMAshley Anguin/Gleaner Writer
While 15-year-old burn victim Adrianna Laing prepares for more corrective surgeries at the Boston-based Shriners Children’s Hospital in the United States, her father, Adrian Laing, is making a fresh appeal for much-needed financial assistance for their day-to-day living away from their homeland.
The elder Laing, who has been in Boston since December, told The Gleaner that it has been extremely difficult providing for both himself and Adrianna.
“Things a get sticky on us because we are over here and we don’t know anyone. It costs about US$100 daily for food. One meal each for us cost US$32. If we do those three times a day, we don’t have any money. We just need help with transportation, food, and the basics to survive here. Anything will do at this point,” he said.
“Housing alone is about US$1,200 to rent a place. Robert White, the managing director of Sanmerna Paper Products Limited, gave me money to assist. I can rely on them. The hospital canteen gives us breakfast on Mondays to Fridays, they close on weekends,” he added.
Shriners is not responsible for housing, providing food, and transportation expenses.
Adrianna’s ordeal began when her family house in Springfield, Westmoreland, was gutted by fire and claimed the lives of her seven-year-old twin siblings Jayden and Jorden Laing, on September 4, 2022.
Documents seen by The Gleaner show that Adrianna’s diagnosis is “contracture of axilla, right elbow and wrist”.
Unable to maintain a steady income
Her first appointment this time around was on December 3 and her treatment plan is to release and graft to the right breast and axilla and possible scar revision. She is also having her prosthetic leg changed and receiving rehabilitation services. She is expected to stay for 16 weeks.
Travelling back and forth for treatment and surgeries, her father said he is unable to maintain a steady income.
“Every seven months I have to take her back to Shriners. It is an ongoing process that won’t be [over] for now. On Tuesday, Adrianna will be getting her prosthetic leg and her other surgeries the following week. As a disk jockey, Christmas time I would be playing at parties, making money and trying to do what I can to provide,” said the elder Laing.
Continuing, he explained: “However, it is always when I want to try and hustle that I have to travel and come overseas. It rough because I have to be here in one place for about three and four months and can’t move to do anything.”
In February 2024, the father and daughter relocated to Slipe, St Elizabeth, after they were given a new home through the Government’s new social-housing programme. Since then, Adrianna’s father said he has been in dialogue with a member of parliament for some financial assistance while overseas.
“I reached out to the member of parliament of the area to see if the Government can give me some financial assistance but still nothing as yet. I will continue to wait to see what happens. Thankfully, the hospital is doing the surgeries for free and paid for our plane tickets to travel,” Laing stated.
This is Adrianna’s fourth trip to the US to do follow-ups. To date, she has completed 28 surgeries. Each time she visits, she has to have her prosthetic leg changed. The leg is donated by a volunteer from Springfield in another US state while Shriners will be responsible for her until she is 21 years old.
BOX: If you want to help Adrianna Laing, you can contact her father at 876-505-8585
Account Details: National Commercial Bank, Negril Branch
Name: Adrian Laing
Account#: Jamaican- 604375622 / US-604389283
Type: Savings