Days after being hospitalised with a yet to be diagnosed illness that claimed the life of their six-year-old sister, toddlers Destiny and Devine Sandy have started to show signs of improvement.
While making preparations for the burial of their daughter Akila, who succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) on Monday, Phillip and Wendy Sandy were yesterday relieved that their daughters, two-year-old Destiny and 18-month-old Devine, appear to be recovering.
A post-mortem examination (PME) is expected to be performed today on Akila’s body and the worried couple hopes that it would determine the cause of death so that the lives of her siblings’ can be saved.
Akila became sick on July 24 with ‘roasting’ fever and complained of continuous pain on her feet. At the time, she, along with her mother and two younger sisters, was visiting her grandmother at Supenaam on the Essequibo Coast.
“They get fever before in and out but they never sick, sick to that extent but after we come out from Karia Karia, the big girl start getting this hot, hot fever,” Wendy had told this newspaper.
After the pain did not subside, the girl’s grandmother decided to take her to Supenaam Health Centre, where she received treatment for the pain but it did not help.
Subsequently, Destiny also started experiencing similar symptoms and was “screaming for her foot too, so we took them both to Suddie, where they run blood tests.”
Wendy said that after doctors at the Suddie Hospital recognised that Akila was not responding to treatment, they transferred both her and her sister, Destiny to the GPH last Wednesday.
At the GPH, doctors ran tests on Akila, whose condition was growing worse.
Phillip said that on Wednesday afternoon when he visited his daughter, he found her writhing on the bed in the Accident and Emergency Department. “The doctor said they can’t treat her properly until they know what wrong with her, so they ran a lot of tests. First, he said he thought might be something wrong with her brain, so they did a brain scan but there was nothing wrong with her brain. Then, they did an X-ray and they did a lot of blood test. Some results come back negative and some ain’t come back as yet. The doctor said she started bleeding inside,” he said.
While these tests were being conducted, Akila’s case was becoming worse and she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where she slipped into a coma and died. In that period, Devine begun displaying similar symptoms.
Seeking help
Akila’s body is currently at the hospital’s mortuary and Phillip, a chain-saw operator, told Stabroek News that after the PME is completed, he would take it to the Sandy’s Funeral Home at Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara.
He is seeking help from the public to cover the cost of transporting the body back to his home village of Karia Karia.
Phillip said the funeral home would prepare Akila’s body for burial and transport it to Parika, all at a cost of $60,000. The parents would have to pay a further $15,000 to $20,000 to hire a speedboat to Supenaam before then covering the cost of transportation to Karia Karia.
According to Phillip, he hardly gets work and when he finally did recently, the contractor did not pay him for the three weeks that he worked during last month.
The little money he has is almost exhausted and he is hoping that public-spirited citizens can assist. He also plans to approach the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs for assistance.
Phillip said it is sad losing his eldest child and that his focus now is on trying to save the two younger ones. He said his distress was eased on Monday afternoon, when they “stopped taking the saline and they eased up crying.”
Phillip recalled that three years ago he lost his seven-month-old son, Alex, in a similar manner. The baby took in suddenly with “vomiting and diarrhoea” and was rushed to the Suddie Hospital and was treated and sent away.
At the time, Phillip was working in the North West District and after receiving the message, he immediately started travelling by boat. However, when he reached at Parika, Wendy called to inform him that the “baby died.”
