A mother has been left to grieve the loss of her son, whom she believes would have still been alive had she received State help so he could get the emergency treatment he needed.
Stacy-Ann Assing said two-month-old Kaden Charles was expected to undergo surgery abroad but the family could not access money from the Children’s Life Fund in time.
Assing yesterday agonisingly held on to his death certificate, one of the few items of memory she now has of her son, who passed away last Monday from a heart condition.
“He was not taking any food. He wasn’t passing urine, his whole body was discoloured. I rushed him to Mt Hope and they assessed him and they said it is coarctation of the heart. He was not getting blood flow through the body,” she told Guardian Media at her Bynoe Trace home in Chaguanas yesterday.
Little Kaden spent only two weeks with his family at their Chaguanas home after he was born. The remainder of his life he spent warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
But as he battled his heart condition, Kaden engulfed the hearts of those around him.
“Kaden was my life, I always wanted another boy to even my children. God bless me with two boys and two girls and seeing Kaden in a situation like that, it really breaks me. I was like fish out of water to do everything for my son.”
Stacy-Ann said given her son’s diagnosis, she approached the Children’s Life Fund in the hope of getting the urgent aid he needed for life-saving surgery.
“When I went to Life Fund, Life Fund said the board of directors has not signed anything and there is nothing that can be done overnight, so I said I know that’s nothing that can be done overnight but at the end of the day, he’s an emergency patient.”
According to her, Kaden’s condition stabilised, presenting a small window for him to be transported overseas. However, it was one that was shut sooner than expected. Stacy-Ann is now desperate to find out whether her son had a shot at survival.
“As a mother, I want to find out why does it have to take so long for an emergency case to be approved and that’s my biggest question throughout the whole ordeal.”
The grieving mother is now calling on the Children’s Life Fund authorities to prioritise cases to ensure children obtain life-saving medical care in a timely manner.
Guardian Media reached out to a senior official at the Children’s Life Fund Authority but there were no responses to our questions.
