Shaggy makes $70m donation to give sick children 'a fighting chance'
Published:Saturday | January 25, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Alessandro Boyd, Gleaner Writer
Chief Executive officer of the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Anthony Wood, said the institution's partnership with entertainer Orville 'Shaggy' Burrell's Make a Difference Foundation was one of the best things that the hospital could have asked for.
He said this after the hospital received a donation of $70 million from the foundation last Thursday. The funds were proceeds from the Shaggy and Friends concert staged earlier this month and are to be used mainly for the catheterisation laboratory.
"It is very important because before this, for us to diagnose a child with a heart condition, we would have to take that child to the University Hospital of the West Indies. It is the only other government institution - other than Bustamante - on the island with that kind of equipment," Wood said.
BETTER ABLE TO DIAGNOSE
"It really gives doctors a good indication of where the heart defects are so they can make informed decisions from a medical point of view, and [the equipment] costs an estimate of US$1.5 million," he added.
Shaggy said he saw the hospital's need one day as he witnessed a surgery.
"I remember speaking to the parent before and seeing how distressed she was. These doctors do some amazing and miraculous work," he said.
"It was explained to me by a doctor that the average child born in Jamaica with any type of cardiac problem pretty much won't make it, unless you have the money to fly them to Miami for surgery. The average Jamaican will not be able to afford that, so that child will not make it. So with this cardiac ward, they have a fighting chance. We shifted all our interest in getting this ward up because that is how important it is," he said.