MONTEGO BAY, St James — As the curve in 15-year-old Angelina Brown’s spine worsens, making it hard for her to breathe, her worried parents are frantically trying to get her scheduled for surgery.

Marcus Brown and Jennifer James cannot afford the approximately $5 million needed to do the procedure at a private facility and they are hoping it can be done at the State-run Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

“She now needs to do a corrective surgery because the doctor said it’s bad scoliosis. There are different costs involved such as the pins to straighten the back plus the hospital where she would stay. We have an estimate on that,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer.

“Plus the doctor who would do the surgery and the assistant and the person who is going to give her the anaesthesia so they can do the surgery, so it’s different costs. It’s basically $5 million,” added Brown.

Documents the family provided to the Observer list costs of $1.88 million for the surgery and another $580,000 for the anaesthesia. In addition to fees for hospital stay in Kingston, there are costs outlined for pre-checks and tests that would be required for the St James-based family to get Angelina prepared for the procedure required to correct the curve in her spine.

However, according to Brown, these prices could be reduced if the surgery is done at KPH.

“I think if we can get to the relevant authorities, it’s a surgery that can be done at KPH without having to pay all that money,” he stated.

“The only thing we would have to pay for, I think, are the pins because we don’t make them in Jamaica. We have the estimate for that,” the worried father continued.

However, based on what he said has been less than efficient service during previous assessment visits to KPH, he is not optimistic his daughter will get the help she needs there.

“Each time we go, them tell us them can’t find her docket, different excuses,” Brown lamented.

He said the frustrating incidents at KPH drove them to seek the services of a private specialist who, upon seeing the results of the test, told them their daughter needs urgent attention. The specialist also works at KPH.

“The doctor said this is bad and asked how we take so long to take her. I say a several times we try to see you and every time we come to KPH, it’s a different problem. It’s either you don’t come or something happened,” Brown explained.

“I saw that every month; we wasting money, back and forth and we not getting anywhere,” he told the Observer of his experience at the public facility.

An equally worried James said it’s been difficult for them, especially as their daughter’s condition has worsened.

“Sometimes I cry and I beg them to help me because sometimes she groan in her sleep and sometimes she say, ‘Mummy, I can’t breathe’,” James told the Observer.

“Sometimes I cry and him [Brown] saying I mustn’t cry; but I have to cry,” she added.

James is already all too familiar with the pain of losing a child, pain she does not want to have to endure again.

“One girl I have, I lose one in 2015 and I can’t afford to lose her,” the worried mother said, her voice breaking.

The couple explained that they first noticed something was wrong with Angelina about six years ago.

“It was from 2018, we never sure what it was but we thought it was the school bag that she was carrying,” Brown said.

“She just started crying for severe pain and she feels pain sometimes same way and tightening in her chest,” he explained.

He said subsequent tests revealed that Angelina has scoliosis.

“First X-ray, she lean to the left and now if you look at the last X-ray, it twist up like an S now,” said Brown.

“The worry is that it can kill her, it could damage her heart and her lungs,” he lamented.

Angelina now attends Harrison Memorial High School, placed there to allow easier access to nearby Cornwall Regional Hospital in case she needs urgent medical care while in class.

“She is a brilliant student and she loves to draw. If you see some of the things that she do, she very artistic and nobody never teach her to draw; she creative bad,” her father said proudly.

“She has a bright future ahead of her and she don’t live any life yet. We would want her to get over this,” Brown added.

Both parents are hopeful they will get the help their daughter desperately needs.

“Any support we can get we would take it, even to take her overseas to do this to make this easier because this [$5 million] is a whole lot of money,” Brown appealed.

“The surgery has to be done now. If you do the research on it, it has to be done this year. If it is not done this year it gets worse and becomes a problem because it is still growing and eventually it can cripple her,” he said morosely.

On Wednesday, Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at the KPH Dr Nicholson-Spence offered hope when contacted by the Observer.

“They can come in, let me pull the file, see what is happening and see if we can get them started on seeing the doctor, etc, if that is truly the case. Because sometimes you hear that and when you look in the file there is a different story,” she said.

“They can contact me or contact our Patient Affairs Department and we can work on that. That can be done for them so we can make a plan from there.”

Nicholson-Spence explained that based on the complexities of scoliosis surgery, except for those done at the University Hospital of the West Indies, most of them are done at KPH.

“So you can understand the burden that KPH has. Nevertheless, we do our best to book everyone,” she said.

“It’s a long surgery as well; it’s not the type of surgery where you can do seven in a day. At best you can do two in a day or at most one — usually one,” the SMO added.

Other factors that impact when a patient can be booked for surgery include the severity of the curvature and whether the patient has other medical conditions.

According to Nicholson-Spence, they are hoping to clear up some of the waiting cases later this year.

“We are…in the planning phases of a mission for scoliosis that will take place in November where we will be trying to do quite a bit of patients during a week,” she said.