MOST seven-year-olds need a bandage for a skinned knee, but what Shinnia Porteous, who was born with a hole in her heart, needs more than anything in this world right now, is a new pacemaker to keep her alive.
Shinnia has had a pacemaker since she was 11 months old, but her mother, Carin Crooks, was shocked to discover just over a week ago, that the pacemaker had expired, and that her child was basically living on borrowed time. She said that adjustments, or fine-tuning, had been made to the device over the years, and that she was not aware that there was a problem.
Crooks said that her previous appointment was in December, and that she had no clue that anything was amiss, until she took Shinnia for her next appointment at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, on June 18, where she was told that the device must be replaced.
She said that the cardiac surgeon, who explained to her that the pacemaker had expired on May 28, was “very surprised” to find that her daughter was not displaying any discomfort or ill-health.
Crooks said that the doctor explained to her that the device had been working in a different mode, and was therefore only functional on one side. She has been advised that Shinnia could die, if the pacemaker is not replaced urgently, within the month.
She now needs US$3,500 or approximately $400,000 to purchase a new pacemaker, which is a small device implanted in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heartbeats, using electrical pulses to make the heart beat at a normal rate.
Crooks explained that with a student’s loan weighing heavily on her financial resources, she is not in a position to access a loan, and that she had in fact approached her credit union, but was turned down because her net pay did not meet the criteria.
The mother said that after deductions, she only takes home $3,000 per month. She said that although the doctors had mandated bed-rest for Shinnia, she wants to be up and about, as she is still not yet displaying any symptoms of tiredness and other issues associated with the pacemaker needing to be replaced.
Still, she knows there is no room for complacency as she tries to acquire the device. “She has to be monitored very carefully, because she still wants to be active. She’s very brilliant, very helpful, she has been top student twice… sometimes when I look at her, it just breaks my heart, but I have to stay strong for her,” Crooks said of her only child.
Little Shinnia, who is loved, not just by her family, but also her school family at Calabar Infant Primary and Junior High School, will have to live with a pacemaker for the rest of her life. A life she will only have if she has the life-saving device implanted as quickly as possible.
Persons who wish to assist Shinnia may contact her mother at: [email protected], or call: (1876)820 5912
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May God bless her