Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer

DIANNE McDONALD, 37-year-old cosme-tologist of Sydenham in Spanish town, is asking for help for her son, 16-year-old Davion King. The 10th-grade student of Innswood High School has rheumatic heart disease and is in need of emergency surgery, for which his mother says she cannot pay.

The first signs of her son's problem were swollen ankles and a persistent fever in the summer of 2007.

McDonald explained that one morning he woke up with fits of coughing and pain in his chest. She took him to the Sydenham Clinic, which referred him to the Spanish Town Hospital.

Tests showed that King's heart was enlarged. Further tests showed that all the valves in his heart were damaged with two leaking badly and in need of urgent surgery.

Last year, he was again admitted to the hospital with heart failure. Now back at home, he is getting shots every 28 days to prevent complete heart failure.

McDonald has been told that surgery for her son would cost in the region of $500,000. It is money which she does not have.

Dr William Foster, a Kingston-based cardiologist, along with other doctors at the cardiology unit of the University Hospital of the West Indies, are actively seeking a sponsor for the boy's treatment abroad.

"We need to help with airfare and accommodation. I am not quite sure where the operation will be, but it will be free. He needs airfare, accommodation and transportation to and from the hospital when he arrives abroad," Dr Foster explained.

Limitations lamented

Local doctors in the field of cardiology are lamenting the limitations which are causing patients with heart conditions to die without the medical intervention they badly need.

Dr Foster, for example, has over 40 adult patients on his list waiting for surgery. He says that with only two operating days in the public-hospital system, many patients are forced to wait months and even years, during which period they often get worse and may even die.

According to him, the situation of children is even more critical as they become too weak for surgery during the waiting period.

One in 300 children in Jamaica is estimated to be born with a heart defect and several often require life-saving surgery.

Private heart surgery costs US$22,000 in Jamaica and is often beyond the reach of those affected, The Sunday Gleaner research shows. For children, the cost ranges from $100,000-$700,000.

At the University Hospital of the West Indies, we were told that there were over 100 patients scheduled for surgery in the first quarter of this year alone!

"The schedule for surgery is made according to diagnosis," an official at the University Hospital said, implying that the worst cases were the ones which were likely to be seen first.

"Because of the limited operating time, patients inevitably get worse and go beyond the point where they can be helped," Dr Foster stated.

He said that there were 12 cardiologists in the public-hospital system, only one of whom was a paediatric cardiologist. He added that some only worked part time in the public-hospital system.

Attempts by The Gleaner to speak with the paediatric cardiologist about the fate of children on the waiting list were not successful.

"It is relatively more easy to beg colleagues abroad to do the service for free than to get patients on to the public hospital waiting list within a reasonable time frame," he laments.

Accepting this reality, the cardiologist noted that he had sent some 50 patients to hospitals in the United States where their surgery was done for free in 2008.

To help sponsor airfare and other costs for the treatment for Damion King, call Dr William Foster at 430-4023.