4-y-o's illness has mom worried sick
Published:Saturday | October 27, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Horace Fisher, Gleaner Writer
MOCHO, Clarendon:
WHEN DANAVOY Williams was born some four years ago, his mother Marcia Williams was overcome with joy. But within a year, Williams' joy rapidly turned to anxiety and a daily struggle to keep her bundle of joy alive.
Young Danavoy was born with the hereditary haemophilic disease, which makes him highly susceptible to uncontrollable bleeding.
Williams, in explaining her anguish coping with Danavoy's illness, told The Gleaner that both sides of Danavoy's families carry the disease, and therefore, the four-year-old has inherited a deadly strain.
The severity of the illness sometimes have him admitted in the May Pen Hospital up to five times per month.
"We found out that he had the haemophilic disease about one year after he was born, when a bruise on his gum bled uncontrollably for days. The doctors at the hospital did a number of tests, which showed that my son has haemophilic disease," explained Williams.
She added: "He bleeds both ways - internally and externally - and sometimes both ways at the same time from his tissues. A simple scratch can cause him to bleed, so I have to be watching him every second of the day so that he doesn't get injured," Williams lamented.
With Danavoy now in basic school, Williams' anxiety has shot up tenfold, as she is worried sick that her hyperactive child while playing with his peers, may get a scratch, a bruise or any other injury that will warrant her having to snatch him out of school and rush him off to the hospital.
ANXIETY WHEN PHONE RINGS
"Whenever my phone rings, mi feel like mi a go jump out of my skin because all on my mind is that a something wrong with my son and mi have to go run up to the school and rush him to the hospital as fast as possible.
Williams added: "Many times that is the case. I have to rush him to the hospital. I watch as doctors struggle to keep him alive with blood transfusions, while he just lies there bleeding profusely," she said.
The worried mother who said she is told by doctors that she must allow her son to enjoy his childhood, spends long hours each day at his school watching him, admitting that she is even afraid to cut his nails, for fear of triggering a new bout of bleeding.
"While I want to go and get a job, I cannot go because I have to be at school with him for long hours each day, because I am so afraid he may get an injury," Williams related, sadly.