A Christmas miracle - 7-y-o spends first festive holiday out of hospital after life-saving heart surgery

Seven-year-old Anissia Joseph spent her first Christmas away from the Bustamante Hospital for Children this year.

She was born with a severe heart condition, which has triggered many hospital visits since she was born and many scary moments for her family, including mom Tameka Johnson, before a heart procedure this year turned things around.

“I was at home and I see she start turn purple,” said Johnson, recounting the day the storm began in their home on George’s Lane in Tel-Aviv, Kingston.

This was the first of numerous hospital visits for Anissia, who was diagnosed with tricuspid atresia, a heart disease in which one of the valves in the heart was not developed.

It would be a frightening experience for any mother to witness the breath leave their young child’s body even once, but Johnson lived through that experience on four different occasions as her third child faced what is hoped to have been the worst part of the journey.

“Winter, you cyaa go weh leave Mommy. You can’t dead leave Mommy yet,” Johnson recalled bawling down the corridors of horror one of the times when Anissia had to be resuscitated after a seizure.

FATHER OPTIMISTIC

While Johnson was pulling out her hair, Anissia’s father, Junior Joseph, was optimistic.

“Mi know say she nah guh dead. She a fighter,” he reassured the panicking mom.

When that episode ended, the family was reassured of Anissia’s will to live as they were told by one nurse that “she a miracle baby because anybody go on that bed, dem don’t come back alive”.

While admitting that things were rather difficult for her, especially when she was pregnant with her fourth child last year, the 37-year-old mother told The Sunday Gleaner that she never once lost hope.

“A mi one daughter. I don’t fed up none at all ... . I just take it and go to church and pray,” said Johnson, adding that God doesn’t give one more than one can bear.

“Dem cuss me a mi yard say she a handicap and me say one day, one day, God a go shame unno, and Him shame dem,” she added with a bright smile.

Turning the corner

Things began to look up for Anissia when she did her first surgery on February 6 of this year.

Johnson recalled that before the procedure was done, it was difficult caring for Anissia and her baby boy as the then six-year-old was not able to move around and help herself as a normal grade-schooler.

She also had to be lifting them both before she was able to purchase a stroller for Anissia.

The seven-year-old took her first steps in April, two months after the surgery and a month after her birthday.

“When time she did sit down, she did miserable ‘cause she nah walk fi go up and down with them (the other children). Now me can’t even hold her back. Every minute she pull the gate and gone,” she shared in much excitement and awe.

However, the countenance of the perky, eager, bright-eyed girl slowly disappeared while walking the hospital compound on her latest visit this month.

“She nuh like up here. From she touch the gate, she ask if a surgery dem a go do pan her again,” Johnson said as she shared the family’s journey with The Sunday Gleaner at the Cardiac Centre at the paediatric hospital.

Her only regret was that Anissia’s dad could not have been present. Pointing out that he has been very supportive on this journey, Johnson said he was unable to be there as he went to work.

DOCTORS HAILED

She also hailed the doctors, the Shaggy and Friends Foundation and Chain of Hope for helping Anissia to turn the corner as they took care of the expenses for the first surgery. She has another to go.

Chain of Hope has been working with the Bustamante Hospital for Children since 1996, assisting with cardiac procedures by providing training, doctors, and equipment.

Dr Sherard Little, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, is among the team of local and international doctors that has been treating Anissia over the years. He told The Sunday Gleaner that about 300 to 400 children are born locally with congenital heart problems each year and “about half of this number will need some sort of intervention; it may not necessarily be surgery”.

He added that Anissia’s condition was so severe, it was highly unlikely that she would have lived past childhood without intervention.

Though her daughter is doing much better than before, Johnson said she still has many sleepless nights as she continues to watch her daughter just to be sure she is okay, but she is excited about the possibility of her being able to start school next September if all goes well.

As for Anissia, she was looking forward to running through Emancipation Park, one of the family’s favourite spots, over the holidays.

jonielle.daley@gleanerjm.com