MONTEGO BAY, St James — THE appeals for help so far appear to have fallen on deaf ears. But Evan Brown Costley remains hopeful that the US$136,000 needed to perform a “risky” surgery on her 27-month-old daughter Terri-Ann Costley will be raised.

“It has been a rocky road. I have written to several organisations and most of them have not even bothered to respond to my request for help. But I am not giving up, I am a fighter. I know what I want and I am going to get it,” Brown Costley told the Observer West.

Terri-Ann was born with a posterior occipital encephalocele — a very rare condition involving improper formation of the skull leaving parts of the brain and its covering membranes exposed. Terri-Ann’s mother and local doctors believe it’s a miracle she is alive.

“Before she was born several doctors said that the child would not live more than a day after birth and that they could do nothing to save her, but here she is now more than two years later,” Brown Costley explained.

According to her, Terri-Ann was delivered at seven months at a St Andrew hospital, shortly after ultrasound examinations revealed the child’s condition. At birth, the child weighed a mere 1.5 kilogrammes, she said.

After a few weeks in hospital, Brown Costley — a primary school teacher in Montego Bay — decided to take Terri-Ann home, fully aware of the immense challenge of caring for her.

The child now wears a thick bandage over a protruding section at the back of her head. The area is soft and usually wet due to periodic leakage of clear fluid from the encephalocele, and must be dressed daily to minimise bacterial build-up.

“Terri-Ann is a gift. She is smart; she talks and she likes to play a lot, just like any normal child at her age, but she needs help — surgery, and fast,” said Brown Costley.

Already Brown Costley and her husband Kenroy have made contact with doctors — including neurosurgeon Dr Ben Carson at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore — who have said that “a risky surgery” can be performed for the treatment of the encephalocele.

“Developmentally, Terry-Ann is doing exceptionally well. She is taking steps unassisted. She picks up small objects; she is able to transfer from one hand to another; she is able to feed herself with finger food and is able to say words,” Dr Carson said, when he saw the child six months ago.

Noting that Terry-Ann’s survival so far, has been “quite extraordinary”, Dr Carson noted that the only way to treat the encephalocele would be to do “an extraordinary surgery” with the risk of the child bleeding to death.

“The doctors, however, believe that she has a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the surgery,” Brown Costley told the Observer West.

She said the surgery would mean that her daughter would need to remain in the United States for a few months for her to be properly monitored.

Persons wishing to contribute Terri-Ann’s surgery may make donations to the parents’ Scotiabank account at Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay: #946118.