LITTLE Rusheka Goodhall — an amputee who lost her leg to a rare cancer at three years old — is already planning what she wants to wear after she is fitted for her first prosthesis.

The six-year-old cancer survivor told the Jamaica Observer that in addition to the limb she will receive, for which she is grateful, she would like a “pretty dress, a spike heel shoes, a bangle and some big earrings” this Christmas to go with her new leg.

Rusheka will tomorrow leave the island to receive her first prosthesis since her amputation three years ago, which will be donated by Limb Lab – an American-based prosthetic and orthotics company.

“I feel happy and surprised,” Rusheka, smiling from ear to ear, said before she buried her gleaming face into her mother’s shoulder.

At three years old she was diagnosed with stage three rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare cancer of the muscle, whereby a tumour attaches to the bone, either in the head, neck, urogenital track, arms or legs. Her doctor, Michelle Reece-Mills, paediatric oncologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies, explained that when her cancer was discovered, there was evidence that it had spread to the abdomen, hence being categorised stage three.

When the toddler’s leg continuously got swollen after she hit it while playing at home some years ago, her mother Shecker Anderson suspected something was wrong.

“It started to swell; she started to walk with a limp, so I took her to the doctor the next day,” Anderson explained in an interview with the Observer in March. “When she went to the doctor, she did an X-ray and it showed a fracture and they put on a cast. When the cast came off, it was swollen and they ordered her to do an MRI. She did a biopsy, a lot of things,” Anderson shared in tears at the time.

As she sat quietly for a while staring into space, Anderson recounted the ordeal of being informed that her daughter’s leg would have to be amputated.

“Me tek time kinda a forget it now cause me realise say me affi live wid di situation, so me nuh bother think bout di bad part,” Anderson told the Sunday Observer. “It did hard man. It was very hard. Everybody did break down and she was like ‘Weh unu a cry fah? Don’t cry, I’m going to be okay.’”

She remembered one particular instance after the amputation, where Rusheka had come to terms with her new situation even before her. She said that days after the surgery, when Goodhall’s godmother visited her in hospital and asked how she was, “she (Rusheka) just flick the sheet and look down and say ‘that’s up’,” pointing to what was now a stub of her leg.

“Days after that again a nurse deh deh and she was like ‘dem cut off me foot’ and di nurse ask her ‘dem really cut off yuh foot’ and she was like ‘yes, me did know say dem did ago cut it off ’cause if dem neva cut it off it would a kill me an it nuh good.’ She was just ‘big woman-ish’,” Anderson continued as she stared in space.

She soon snapped out of her trance and beamed with glee as she spoke of the generous assistance that her daughter has received. Anxiously awaiting their departure, an elated Anderson expressed gratitude to the local entities that assisted — the Angels of Love Foundation, which purchased their tickets and Sagicor Jamaica, which named Rusheka a beneficiary from the company’s annual SIGMA Run.

In addition to donating the prosthesis, Limb Lab will cover the accommodation cost for both Anderson and Rusheka.

Daniel Tellijohn, founder and certified prosthetist at Limb Lab told the Sunday Observer that he was moved to help Rusheka earlier this year when his company was planning a trip to assist amputees in Jamaica.

“While planning our trip down in March 2016, I was doing research on Jamaica and prosthetic care and ran across a story on Rusheka. I reached out and offered to provide care for her at that time, but the timing and distance of the trip didn’t work for her family. We stayed in touch after our visit and now she is coming to Minnesota. With her coming to our facility we feel she will have a better outcome, since we will have access to all of our own equipment,” Tellijohn said.

In noting that Rusheka is an above-knee amputee, he explained the procedure she will undergo on arrival: “We will first take a cast of her residual limb. [Then we will] use that cast to create a diagnostic socket to get the right fit. We will really focus on the physical therapy and make sure she has a lot of training on how to use her prosthesis. Once we are positive the fit is correct, we will make a duplicate of the initial socket and make a final product that will be much lighter and stronger.

Though this visit will last roughly two weeks, Tellijohn pointed out that the company “would be happy to continue helping Rusheka” even after this appointment.

Tellijohn indicated that Limb Lab will, in addition, assist approximately 20 Jamaicans by year-end.

“We look forward to being able to provide care for many more in the future. The more funding we have and assistance on getting our devices through customs, will make the whole process much easier,” he said.