‘Have faith, pray for me’

WHILE 14-year-old burn patient Ackalia Dunkley is undergoing treatment and therapy at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia,, she is in high spirits and wants her well-wishers not to worry about her too much.

During an online media briefing yesterday to provide an update into the status of the teenager who underwent four surgeries, Dr Zaheed Hassan, president of the Augusta, Georgia-based Joseph M. Still Burn Center, said she asked him to convey that message to her loved ones and well-wishers.

“‘Please tell them, stay strong, have faith and pray for me’,” was the message from Dunkley, according to Hassan.

Dunkley sustained second-degree burns affecting 40 per cent of her body during a gas stove explosion at her home in Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth, on Friday, June 16. She was subsequently flown to the United States on June 21 to begin well-needed treatment.

Ruphema Dunkley, her father, described his daughter as a resolute fighter who has been proactive in her recovery process.

“She put extra effort, like if she tell herself say ‘mi a walk’, she push herself. The doctors came to do therapy on her right hand and it was so hot and she decide say she a take the pain. The doctor them come back yesterday and she a work her hand herself. I tell her ‘Baby, if you want to get through, you do more than what the doctor say you must do’,” the senior Dunkley said.

“She just lock her mind (and) focus on whatever motivation I give her. She is excited to come back home and nuh stop talk about her lesson and school and stuff like that,” he added. “She shining brighter, and the more she shines, the more my heart is at ease because the more the sun shine, the more the plant burst out of the ground.”

In Jamaica, Dunkley was not given enough fluids so she was a little dry on the outside, which Hassan said was better because she was not getting the surgical treatment.

In his progress report on the teenager’s treatments, Hassan noted that her chances of survival would have been lessened if she had sustained burns over more than 40 per cent of her body.

“That is a big burn even for the US, and for Jamaica and third-world countries. I checked her out with my team and decided to go to the operating room the next day. We took her to the operating room, cleaned up all the areas,” Hassan explained.

“Fortunately, most of her burns were second degree, and we took some small amount of skin from the hip area. While we did that, we did both legs, arms and face. We spread the re-cell on both thighs, both arms, and the face,” Hassan added. “She has been doing wonderfully, her breathing tube is taken off and she is talking, and doing really well. I think she is going to go to the operating room either tomorrow or day after tomorrow for a dressing change, and the staples will be removed so she can feel even better.”

ashley.anguin@gleanerjm.com