Hanover woman desperately needs a pacemaker

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE PAST five years have been extremely difficult for 43-year-old Tasheka Harvey, a single mother of Flower Hill in Hanover. She has been diagnosed with a second-degree heart blockage and badly needs a pacemaker to alleviate her shortness of breath and fainting spells.

Harvey, a single mother, operates a small shop in her community, but earns just enough to feed her family. With her heart condition getting worse, she has decided to turn to the public for assistance in trying to get a pacemaker, which she hopes will end her breathing discomfort.

“I have had this condition since 2015. I was diagnosed with a second-degree heart blockage. People rushed me to the hospital, where they did several tests after I fainted shortly after feeling dizzy. It was not until they used the heart machine that they found out that my heart was in bad shape,” Harvey told The Gleaner.

A second-degree atrioventricular block, or second-degree heart block, is a disease of the cardiac-conduction system in which the conduction of atrial impulses through the atrioventricular node are bundled or blocked.

Patients with second-degree heart blockage may be asymptomatic or they may experience a variety of symptoms such as light-headedness and syncope. Second-degree heart blockage may progress to complete heart block, with an associated increased risk of mortality.

“A doctor at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital advised that I will need a pacemaker, and when I asked about the cost, I was told that it is going to cost over $1.5 million. I need this to help me to breathe and live a close-to-normal life again, but I can’t afford this,” said Harvey, as she struggled to breathe as she explained her plight.

“I have done a series of tests. However, after a while, I could no longer afford to finance the cost of those tests as they were costing me in the region of $22,000 and upwards on a weekly basis. I didn’t have the money every week to get a follow-up,” explained Harvey.

Serious Challenges

According to Harvey, who is a member of the Blue Airy Seventh-day Adventist Church in Westmoreland, her life-threatening condition has been posing serious challenges, especially in caring for her 13-year-old son, Rojeon Williams, who is physically challenged.

“Things have gotten worse in terms of the sale of goods from my grocery shop, which is the main source of income on which my financial survival is hinged. The people living in the community these days are mostly senior citizens, and the few young people are not working,’’ lamented Harvey.

Harvey, who once lived and worked in Kingston as a bus driver, operating a public-passenger vehicle, said that five years ago she was forced to sell her house and shuttered her once-thriving public transportation sector business because of her physically challenged son.

“When my son was born 13 years ago, I was forced to sell my house and my bus and come back down here (Flower Hill, Hanover) in 2010. He had a stroke before his first birthday, and it cost me a lot of money going back and forth for therapy and medications,” said Harvey. “In 2010, I was living in Seaview Garden, Kingston, where I bought a house. I was a bus driver operating from Seaview Gardens to downtown Kingston.”

Persons wishing to help Tasheka Harvey can contact her at 876 329-5538. Donations can also be made to her pacemaker fund at the Savanna-la-Mar branch of the Jamaica National Bank (JNB) branch. The account number is 1 0 0 2 6 7 0 3.