‘Time running out’
Plea for airlift funding to treat 12-y-o burn victim
Published:Thursday | September 8, 2022 | 12:13 AM
Between bouts of tears, Adrian Laing, flanked by Sanmerna Foundation executives, made an impassioned plea for speedy assistance as his daughter, who is suffering from third-degree burns, is pressed for time to get treatment overseas.
The 12-year-old burn victim, Adrianna Laing, is the lone survivor of the inferno that took the lives of her three younger brothers, nine-year-old Adrianno Laing and seven-year-old twins Jorden and Jayden Laing in Westmoreland on Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference held at the head office of Sanmerna Paper Products Limited in Kingston, Laing said words cannot explain the last 72 hours.
“I’m just calling on corporate Jamaica to just get on board. Please, I am begging each and everyone. I have lost three, three of my boys,” he said.
Laing, a sound system operator more popularly known as DJ Bones, said that saving the life of his daughter was the only thing that could lift him above the nightmarish ordeal.
“We need to get her out, fly her out. The hospital is covered. They are just waiting. ... Her life depends on it,” Laing told The Gleaner.
Robert White, managing director of Sanmerna Paper Products Limited and director of Sanmera Foundation, said this was the third burn victim his foundation was assisting in getting treatment overseas.
“We couldn’t sit back and let Miss Baby Laing go and perish like this. We have to try. He already lost three persons and it touched my heart,” White told The Gleaner.
He is concerned that Jamaica still does not have a burn unit.
Stephen Josephs, project manager at Sanmerna Foundation, said his outfit would be willing to partner with the Government and corporate Jamaica to make that a reality.
The Sanmerna Foundation said that the US visa process has begun and that it does not foresee any challenges.
“It has been sent off and we are getting clearance. The airlift, as we said, is US$39,850.50. The consul general in Miami (Oliver) Mair had raised US$2,000 thus far. We are down to US$37,850.50 to get this airlift. More importantly, we don’t have time. Time is critical,” Josephs said.
Josephs, who has been in dialogue with doctors, reported that Adrianna has been deemed a miracle.
“Her vitals are still up, but time is running out because they have to get the toxin from her skin, and we don’t have the facility in Jamaica to treat a third-degree burn.
The director has given his full support to this project and we need corporate Jamaica to come on board and finance this air cost. “This is the only hurdle we have now and we can’t leave no later than tomorrow (Thursday),” Josephs said.
Adrianna is expected to get treatment at the Joseph M. Still Center in Austell, Georgia, the largest and most respected burn centre in America.
Up to press time, there were reports of US$10,000 in financial support from Scoops Unlimited, manufacturers of the popular Devon House ice cream.
Anyone who wants to donate can do so using:
CashApp: $Andriannalaing1234
Local bank account: Sophia McDonald, Scotia Negril branch - 830159
US account: Sophia McDonald, Scotia Negril branch – 830158