THE fire which threatened to claim the life of 14-year-old Black River High School student Ackalia Dunkley has sparked renewed calls for Jamaica to have its own unit to treat severe burns; however, plans to rebuild one appear to be in limbo.

Last Friday morning, while at her Burnt Savannah home in St Elizabeth, Dunkley was preparing tea before heading off to school when a mishap caused a gas explosion that took her by surprise. The teen suffered third-degree burns from the incident, which threatened to end her life if she was not flown overseas to seek emergency and expert medical attention.

Following appeals from the Sanmerna Foundation and relatives of Dunkley to potential donors, the US$45,000 ($7 million) that was needed to cover air ambulance expenses to take her to the United States of America (USA) was successfully raised in just over 24 hours, after appeals for help went out on Monday evening. She was flown out of Jamaica at approximately 2:00 am on Wednesday in a jet sent to the island by Trinity Air Ambulance International.

Dunkley’s case follows that of Adrianna Laing, the 13-year-old burn victim, who received over 90 per cent burns on her body in September 2023 during a fire at her house in Westmoreland. Her three brothers perished in the fire. Adrianna, a student of the Maggotty High School in St Elizabeth, survived the near-death experience after receiving treatment and care at the JMS Burn Centre, where Dunkley is currently a patient.

Last year, officials of the State-owned oil refinery Petrojam announced that it would embark on a mission to raise funds to rebuild a burn unit. Those plans are still at the infancy stage, according to general manager (GM) of Petrojam Winston Watson.

Watson told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday afternoon that, “We don’t have any update yet. We are still putting together the plan with the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the next step would be to go to the private sector and see if we can raise some funding for it.”

Watson said it would cost Jamaica roughly $200 million to get the project started.

“We just started planning last year. We are doing it as a corporate citizen. It is not something we are responsible for directly, but we are doing it in partnership with the UHWI and the Ministry of Health and Wellness. It is a lot of money and we need to raise the financing for it.

“We were involved in the first burn unit but that facility basically ran into disrepair. We work in an environment where we can have staff injury, and we want to make sure that the facilities are there for them and so we decided to go after it. We are working on the timeline and all of that, and the Ministry of Health is involved through the UHWI.”

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said in building a burn centre there are few things that stakeholders have to grapple with.

“One of the things I keep saying is that we treat burns in our hospitals, but where you have severe burns, which happens relatively infrequently, those persons have to be sent out. A facility to deal with burns is ultimately where we are going, but the reality is that a burn unit that treats burns to that level is very expensive to build and to maintain. The truth is that most times it will be unoccupied because people don’t always need that level of treatment. Sometimes you have to make a determination whether it is more cost effective to fly out someone with severe burns, if we have a severe burn, rather than have a unit that is costly and expensive to maintain. We are moving towards it.”

Regarding Dunkley’s expenses, officials at the Sanmerna Foundation have a special arrangement with the JMS Burn Center that will allow stakeholders to do more fund-raising in order to pay for her surgeries.

In the meantime, Dunkley’s father, Ruphema Dunkley, who accompanied her on the jet to the US, said it was like a dream come true.

“I must give thanks to the Sanmerna Foundation and everyone who contributed, big and small. I must give a big shout out to Mr Delroy Slowly, the Member of Parliament of North East St Elizabeth. It’s like a dream come true. Sometimes things seem impossible, but if you continue, you will see the results.”