5-y-o urgently needs a pacemaker

Five-year old Jermaine Taylor is urgently in need of a new pacemaker, a situation which has forced his family to start a GoFundMe account to raise the necessary funds to purchase the device.

“His heart function is very poor right now,” Lorraine Haye, his mother, told The Gleaner, in a phone call.

According to Haye, 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 Hospital for Children, where a pacemaker was placed in his heart.

His mother says the pacemaker is to now be replaced but the family is unable to come up with the US$22,100 needed to purchase the new device.

The device has been sourced in the United States and the doctors at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston will perform the procedure to implant the device, if and when it is purchased.

Last November the family set up a GoFundMe account but so far it has raised only US$1,500, a fraction of the total cost of the device.

The family has since reached out to the diaspora seeking help.

Dr Robert Clarke, head of Help Jamaica Medical Mission and East Orange Medical Service in East Orange, New Jersey, says young Jermaine’s plight was brought to his attention and he has since contacted the family to offer his help.

“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.

Help Jamaica Medical Mission which has been in existence since 2010 is a 501 C3 non-profit organisation which 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 is a special case and I am appealing to members of the Jamaican diaspora to help raise the necessary funds to purchase the device,” he told The Gleaner.

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

“We in the diaspora can help this family so this child does not die,” he said, noting that he is appealing to all who can help to do so.

Clarke has said that he has reached out to the doctors in Jamaica who are treating Jermaine to see what assistance they can offer.

Haye said that on Jermaine’s last visit to the doctor she was told that the pacemaker needs to be changed urgently to prevent complications.

Jermaine has been described as a fun-loving and happy child.

Persons wishing to donate can go to the GoFundMe website to do so.