THE last thing that 38-year-old Kimberly Gibson imagined was that she would become an amputee, blind in her right eye and partially blind in her left eye, all at the same time, from battling diabetes all her life.

She also has the added challenge of caring for her 18-year-old sister after their mother died a few years ago. The mother of three told the Jamaica Observer that after losing her right foot in June she is now unable to tend to her 12-year-old disabled son, Brian, who requires round-the-clock care.

Given Gibson’s dire circumstances, she is now seeking assistance to purchase a prosthetic leg which, according to her, costs $250,000.

“I am a diabetic, I lost one of my feet and because of the sugar, I am blind in one eye. The other one now, like in the day it’s still dark – so I can hardly see out of the eye. Like [when] somebody [is] passing I would just see a glimpse but I cannot identify is you that,” she explained.

“I have three boys [but] my mother died leaving my little sister, so I just say she is my fourth child. I have to look after them so I need to work. I used to do little days’ work or live-in work to help send them to school and so on, but because of the illness I cannot get to look after them. So, any assistance I can get I would really appreciate it,” she pleaded.

To supply basic amenities for her family, Gibson said she gets help from neighbours and church members in her community of Alva, St Ann. She also noted that the father of her two sons would sometimes provide assistance by way of sharing produce from his small farm, however, Gibson said she is still struggling.

“I ask people for help — I ask for pampers, sometimes I beg them little food and they would give me because they know my condition and I don’t live bad in the district. Sometimes I ask the church members and them give me little rice or so… No family member nuh help mi, not even a phone call from mi sick,” Gibson told the Observer.

While obtaining a prosthetic leg is her main priority, Gibson noted that she was unable to have a much-need laser eye surgery to help treat her damaged right eye, after doctors at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) told her that the eye “was leaking in the back”.

“The laser treatment is for every two months, but from I left out of the hospital [KPH] I don’t go back because it’s expensive to go to town and I don’t have the money to do the surgery. The doctor was saying like $25,000 for the treatment but I didn’t have the money to go so I didn’t go,” Gibson lamented.

Meanwhile, general practitioner Dr Lincoln Wright explained that a patient doesn’t have to be suffering from diabetes for an extended period to lose their limbs or eyesight.

“If the diabetes is severe and it is not corrected early they can start to have eye issues early. But, as the years progress, the condition deteriorates. You can have diabetes for many years and you don’t have eye problems if it is controlled,” he said.

Adding that the disease is extremely deadly, Wright told the Observer that, “It is very important to make the point that in Jamaica when somebody loses their limbs because of diabetes, it can kill them faster than the most aggressive cancer. Because they can’t move around they become housebound or bedridden and then they become depressed.”

He also verified that the cost for a prosthetic leg ranges from $200,000 to $600,000.