Update | Gravely ill child waits weeks for letter to seek treatment in US
Published:Tuesday | November 1, 2022 | 12:11 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Kiano Chance's parents are in a race against time as they head to the United States Embassy in Liguanea, St Andrew, petitioning on his behalf for a visa to fly him to Florida with the hope of saving his life.
Since his birth on July 15, the three-month-old has been suspected of having numerous illnesses, which relatives say they have still not received a definite diagnosis of from doctors at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, where he has been repeatedly admitted.
Additionally, Kiano's relatives told The Gleaner that they had been pleading for a simple referral letter from the relevant personnel at the paediatric institution to share with a children's hospital in Miami, Florida, so that the child can be admitted there.
They only received the correspondence late Monday.
Chief among relatives batting for Kiano's survival has been his uncle, Patrae Rowe, former chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, who spoke with The Gleaner on Monday.
“Since his birth on July 15, he has been in and out of hospital, mostly in – from Mandeville Hospital to Bustamante – with unexplained medical conditions from suspicious heart conditions and a number of other tests have been done on him,” Rowe told The Gleaner.
With that suspicion, Rowe, along with Joan Myers and Opal Robinson, has made contact with two hospitals in Florida and has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to take the child overseas for better diagnosis and medical treatment.
“All they're asking for, really, is a medical report from the hospital to tell them the status of the child because the [overseas] hospital wants to be in a position to know what kind of condition they should expect when the child arrives in Miami, to put themselves in a position to prepare to accept the child,” Rowe told The Gleaner.
He said that although the child's mother, Tashoy James, applied for the letter and reports on October 10, they had waited for weeks to get the documents as they watched the child's life ticking away.
When The Gleaner contacted Bustamante Hospital CEO Anthony Wood, he redirected our queries to Dr Michelle-Ann Richards Dawson.
Although requesting that the name of the child be sent to her via text on Monday morning, up to press time Richards Dawson did not give a promised response to our news team. Nor did she answer several subsequent calls seeking an update.
According to Rowe, when he called to speak to someone in the hospital's records department last week, he could hear a voice in the background, saying, “'Tell them to wait. Tell them they have to wait. Remind them that we said 14 days,' and this is under circumstances where the child is literally dying.”
Three weeks passed before the application was granted.
He continued: “When you look at the condition of the child, you realise that the child is dying. The child has fought to live from birth to now, and, I mean, it's just the insensitivity to the issue. It's just alarming and mind-boggling.”
He does not believe the matter was treated with the urgency it deserves.
“They have not been able to provide a diagnosis of the child's condition up to this point,” he said. “Right now, the child is swollen in terms of face and hand, and every day, it's something else happening to the child and the Jamaican public health system is unable to properly diagnose the child.”
Rowe added that the child was previously in Mandeville and had to be taken to private labs to do tests because they could not be done in public facilities in Manchester.
“Obviously, Jamaica does not have the medical resources to take care of him,” he said.
The referral letter was crucial for the interview at the United States Embassy, which is scheduled for today.
“The bureaucracy and red tape to get that letter has hampered the response from the Miami Hospital and we're in a quandary as to what is happening now,” a devastated Rowe told The Gleaner. “Without the acceptance from the hospital in Miami, it is useless to even go to the Embassy ... .”
Their anxiety peaked when, about 3 a.m. on Monday, Kiano's parents received a call from the Bustamante Hospital, advising them to come in to spend quality time with the child.
“The hospital has advised that at this point, they should prepare for the worst ... . The child is critical, pretty much waiting on the baby to die,” Rowe said.