Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 28, 2013 News
By Sharmain Grainger
At the age of 15 Christina Issardeen is as ambitious as the next girl her age, or perhaps even more, as she lives every day to the fullest. Her reason for taking this approach to life is not merely coincidental but rather is linked to the fact that even before she was quite seven years old she underwent three surgical operations all intended to save her life.
She has, not only the scars as reminders of how blessed she is to still be alive, but a very visible tube even today runs just under the skin of the right side of her neck extending from her brain to her abdomen. Although it may appear stylish to some and jaw-dropping to others, the medical contraption was in fact implanted to allow for excess fluid to be drained from her brain.
It was a mere two weeks after her birth on October 28, 1997, at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, that doctors were able to detect that something was vitally wrong with Christina’s brain. Her condition was diagnosed as Hydrocephalus or ‘water on the brain’ which according to her mother, Farina Fareed, was getting worse by the day.
This condition, according to medical experts, occurs when cerebral spinal fluid or CSF – the clear, water-like fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord – is unable to drain from the brain. This results in the fluid accumulating causing a back-up of fluid in the skull. The condition is known to cause severe headaches and if left untreated, doctors say it can lead to brain damage, a loss in mental and physical abilities and even death.
Reflecting on a time when she thrived on nothing but her faith in God to get through each day, Farina, who currently resides with her family at 448 Bell West Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara, disclosed that “there were many ups and downs” as she struggled both emotionally and financially to get her young daughter needful medical help.
However, there was nothing to suggest that something was initially wrong with Christina at birth, as according to Farina, her pregnancy was normal although she underwent a Caesarean Section as she did for her first daughter, Ann Marie.
All was well with baby Christina based on the observation of medical personnel who discharged her three days after birth. However, Farina disclosed that she was not immediately able to take her new baby home as she (Farina) was required to remain a few days more for observation.
She was happy to eventually take her new baby home and believed that all was well except for the fact that a few days later Christina took on “a malnourish look”. This development did not bother the second-time mother in the least as she decided she will adhere to the exclusive breastfeeding advice of nurses at the hospital.
However, it was two weeks after the birth that Farina was required to take her baby back to the hospital for a routine medical check when the doctor made the startling discovery that Christina was not well at all.
“The doctor just look at her and then turn to me and said ‘this baby is sick’…I asked her how so and she told me ‘look at this baby’s head, it is swollen’.” A paediatrician was immediately called in to attend to Christina and a decision was immediately made for her to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
According to Farina there were no other evident signs that something was wrong with the child except for the fact that her head kept on swelling, a deduction that was made on the basis of regular measurements. Christina would remain a patient of the GPHC for two weeks before doctors there decided that nothing more could be done there for her.
In fact Farina disclosed that a doctor gave her a letter stating that a needful medical procedure could be done at hospitals in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Given her modest existence, Farina recalled that finding the needful money for the operation, accommodation and airfare was no easy task.
Recognising that the condition of her few weeks old baby required urgent attention, Farina left for Trinidad even without the requisite sum. She was advised to seek the medical care at a privately operated Hospital in San Fernando and a doctor there explained how a cerebral (brain) shunt would have to be surgically inserted into her daughter’s head to allow the excess water in her brain to drain.
Farina disclosed that while she was in Trinidad she had learnt that many children had died having undergone such operations.
At 28 days, Christina for the first time would go under the knife of the attending surgeon to have the shunt inserted. And according to Farina although she got some assistance from family members and friends, the procedure was successfully completed with her still owing the surgeon TT$2,000. She returned home with her baby but not before assuring the surgeon that she would make the final payment as soon as possible.
Before leaving Trinidad too, Farina recalled how the surgeon had predicted that there was a possibility that her baby would not be able to see as a result of the operation and if she did it could take some time.
“I really had to stand up and have faith and that brought me through with her. I use to think it would be such a bad thing to have a blind child, that you can’t leave her anywhere…I wasn’t thinking anything positive,” recalled Farina.
And indeed it did take some time, as it was not until she was about six months old that Christina was able to detect brightly coloured objects placed in her line of sight. Follow-up observations at the GPHC would reveal that all was normal with Christina and life would again normalise for Farina.
This would however be short-lived as by the time Christina was about four years old she started developing severe headaches. “She would just cry out for pain in her head and neck and I didn’t know what to do…a friend of mine even took me to a church so that they could pray for her and prayers did help a lot,” reflected Farina.
It was however soon detected that Christina had outgrown the shunt thus it was not permitting the flow of excess fluid out of her brain. This development, Farina was informed, would require corrective surgery.
Again she was tasked with soliciting funds to head back to Trinidad and this time she was even able to raise enough to pay the surgeon for the outstanding debt for the earlier operation as well.
For the second time, Christina was operated on and the outcome was again successful. However by the time she was six years old another corrective operation was required but this time the GPHC was able to facilitate. Christina even today vividly remembers
being prepared for the latter operation and according to her, “I was scared to death that day.” She was also very disappointed as the same day she was admitted her cousin was celebrating her birthday and “I didn’t get any cake,” recalled Christina.
Instead she remembers being taken into a room with lots of needles and other medical cutting instruments and before the anaesthesia kicked in she remembers saying a little prayer she had learnt in Sunday school. “It was a very frightening experience but I already had instilled in me that once God brings you to something He can bring you through it, and I held on to that even though I was so young.”
The operation would last for about three hours and Christina would leave within three days which was in fact unusual, according to attending doctors.
Doctors had earlier disclosed that children having undergone such operations usually take about three weeks to be discharged. “This is what I would like to call a miracle,” said Christina as she reflected on her experience and the fact that she had not since been required to undergo another operation.
She is adamant that it was no one but God that has kept her alive since her entry into this world. Moreover, her personal motto is “put God first in everything that you do and you will be successful.”
Today Christina leads a normal life and has been credited with being one of the more intellectually endowed students at the West Demerara Secondary School. She has an avid interest in Science and a knack for dramatic poetry and debates, and she disclosed that she is currently very enthusiastic about her preparations for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination.
According to her the medical condition that God has allowed her to go through has in fact helped to channel her thinking, and by extension her way of life, towards the awareness that “life is precious every day; a day is not something that should be wasted – it is a blessing.”
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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