A three-month-old boy was yesterday admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital after a huge growth on top of his head suddenly burst, reducing the likelihood of a lifesaving surgery being performed.
Young Nicholas Wesley Martin was up to press time last evening a patient of the Paediatric Ward and his worried parents said they have been unable to reach his doctor to ascertain what the next step is.
When born on the historic date 11/11/11, Nicholas had a small bump at the top of his head, his mother said, and doctors, at that time, said he would not live past three days.
According to both parents, doctors told them that their child had a brain tumour and surgery was not an option.
But Nicholas did not die after three days. However, three months later, the bump had grown to double the size of his head and doctors had indicated that surgery would be necessary as if the growth continued; it would eventually burst, killing the child in the process.
This was why 25-year-old Shirmatti Sanchara screamed hysterically when she discovered that the cloth which she had wrapped her baby’s head with was soaked.
“I dressed him and left him in the chair. When I come downstairs I see the cloth wet and when I check I start scream… They de say after it burst, the baby gon live a few days and die,” she said. She said that the child was in a lot of pain and he cried uncontrollably for some time. Once at the hospital, Shirmatti said, Nicholas was given immediate attention by nurses who stitched what was described as “excess skin”. The mother said the once huge growth has now been reduced to a piece of skin.
The mother of three said she had visited the hospital’s clinic on Thursday and doctors were not expecting such a scenario. She pointed out that when she took her son to the hospital on Thursday an ultrasound was done, and doctors said that it was not a brain tumour but instead a growth filled with liquid.
“The doctors tell me that they can’t do nothing. They can’t do surgery. They can’t do nothing. They say I just gotta wait till it burst and baby gon live a few days then die,” she said.
But given what she was told in the past, and the fact that her son lived, Shirmatti has not given up hope.
She said she was not always this convinced that baby Nicholas was strong, but after seeing him for the first time, she knew he would survive.
“Before I see he and they tell me he was born like that, I de done give up hope but when I get the courage and went and see he for the first time, I build up faith. I didn’t want to move from next to him. I believe he can live through this and live through his surgery,” she said.
“He had to spend eleven days in the hospital after he born and when was time for me to take him home, they say I gotta buy oxygen but I carry home my child and he breathe on his own,” a proud Shirmatti told Stabroek News.
The woman could not resist bragging about what a beautiful child Nicholas is. “If ya see he how he chubby and nice; his eyes bright… he is a sweet little baby and healthy too,” she said, adding that the boy is very playful and cheerful.
