THE Bustamante Hospital for Children has been the only paediatric hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean for over four decades and during this time the hospital has helped an average of 50,000 children per year. In 2008, over 100,000 children passed through the hospital’s gates. The Shaggy Make A Difference Foundation, with help from its corporate sponsors including the Wisynco Group of Companies, is making sure the hospital has the right equipment, staff and funding to help millions more.

Here are two letters from two patients who have benefited from the services of the hospital — a 10 year old who has learnt that there are harder things in life than school, and another who, at twelve years old, has found inner strength:

RYAN GAYLE

“I am 10 years old, and I have been a patient at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital for two weeks now. I attend Windward Road Primary and Junior High School and I am in grade five. I am very nervous about doing GSAT next year, but being in the hospital I know that there are worse things

than school.

“I live very close to my school in Rockfort, and one day when I was going to the shop, I stepped on a rusty nail. My parents did not take me to the hospital right away, but instead they gave me family remedies. When my foot started to leak and I couldn’t walk on it, they took me to the Children’s Hospital.

“The doctors and nurses were very nice to me at the hospital, and made sure that I felt safe. They kept telling me I would get better soon. Mommy and Daddy never gave me a chance to miss them! They came to visit me every day, and it was not easy for them because they work very hard.

“I made some good friends at the hospital, and my doctor says I can leave tomorrow. I am very sad because some of my friends here are very sick and will be in the hospital for a long time. I have told some of them good-bye already and we agreed to meet up in high school. I want to go to Ardenne High School, and some of them do, too. I hope I see them there.

“Some of my new friends talk about hoping to live long enough to go to university. I hope they make it, and I have promised myself to try hard enough in school so that one day I can join them at the university. I want to be a soldier because my neighbour is a soldier and he shows me how soldiers help people, and that is what I want to do, help people, like the hospital helped me.”

TCHELL SPENCE

“I have been a patient at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital since 2003. I am 12 years old and I have rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic heart disease is a very deadly disease that damages the valves of the heart and is caused by the strep bacteria that causes strep throat.

“When I was five years old, I had strep throat and I had to be taken to the Children’s Hospital from all the way in Highgate, St Mary because I would not get better. I was very weak and had to sleep on three pillows, and most nights I couldn’t sleep because I was coughing too much. The doctors told me and my parents that I had rheumatic heart disease and that the mitral valves in my heart were damaged and that they would need to be replaced.

“For four years before my first surgery in 2007, I was an outpatient at the hospital and did regular visits about once a month, and my mother also carried me here if I had any other problems during the month. When I had to spend the night at the hospital I never got scared like some of the other children because I knew that if anything went wrong in the middle of the night, I was in the right place to get help. My mother always stayed over with me and slept on a chair beside my bed, and the doctors and the nurses were really kind and they made me feel safe.

“In my first surgery, the doctors replaced my mitral valves with plastic valves. The surgery went well, and I went home happy, maybe too happy because soon I was back in the hospital because the valves had started to leak, and the doctors said it was because I had played too much, too soon after the surgery.

“In 2008 I went back to get my valves replaced again, this time with metal valves that do not leak. That surgery also went well and my doctors say that I won’t need to do anymore, but I still come to the hospital every month for them to test my blood. The valve I have in now is smaller than the one I was born with so I am on blood thinners to make sure that the blood can pass through.

“My sickness was really hard on my family, as well. When I was sick, I lost a lot of weight and threw up after I ate. My mother also lost a lot of weight worrying about me and I would always catch her crying. Both my parents had to stop working for a little while to take care of me, but my mother is back at work now. Everyone was sad when I was sick, and now that I am better everyone is happy again. My mother is even back to her old weight!

“My experience at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital has taught me that I am very strong, and I know now that there is nothing I cannot do.

“When I grow up, I want to become a Paediatric Cardiologist to make sure that I can help other children like me be strong, too.”

The Bustamante Hospital for Children would love to have more success stories like these two, and with your help they can. Join The Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation and corporate sponsors, Wisynco Group of companies through its brands Coca Cola, Ocean Spray-Wata and Wata, and Island Outpost, in making a difference. Dare to care and make your donation to the Bustamante Hospital for Children. The hospital is always in need of equipment, from advanced machines used in intricate surgeries, to basic supplies.