Over one year after Reliance, Essequibo single mother Phyziena Etwaroo discovered that her almost two-year-old daughter, Akeela, was suffering from meningitis— causing abnormalities in her brain— the baby is now recovering, following a successful surgery performed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Monday, July 29.
The emergency surgery was performed by Guyana’s first neurosurgeon Dr Amarnauth Dukhi and a team.
According to Etwaroo, Akeela was scheduled for another CT scan; however, when same was conducted, she was informed that an immediate emergency surgery had to be conducted.
“He (Dr Dukhi) said that baby need to do a surgery right away because he found a lot of fluid on the right side of the brain and that is where he admitted her and he was supposed to do the surgery the night at 8 but he did it earlier than it was supposed to be done,” Etwaroo related.
The young mother expressed that after hearing the news, she was overwhelmed since seeing her child in a lifeless form was difficult.
Akeela celebrated her 2nd birthday on Tuesday, one day after the surgery, and would have spent that day in the hospital recovering.
This also was difficult, since at that time, the child was still unresponsive. However, things began to change that following Saturday.
Akeela is now in a much better condition according to her happy mother, who said that the child is falling back to normalcy.
“She is doing much better now, she is having her meals, her baby language is starting back fresh and new, when I talk to her now she would respond…For now, she needs all of my attention I have to give her a good life, she would need a lot of therapy because this is not something that would cure so fast, it would take time, because it’s like I got myself a new born baby and I have to start everything fresh again,” Etwaroo, the single mother, explained.
The 24-year-old mother expressed her appreciation to Dr Dukhi and team for giving her what she deems as the best birthday gift ever.
Etwaroo discovered that something was wrong on June 27, 2018 when Akeela developed a high fever which lasted overnight.
As such, the baby was rushed the Suddie Hospital where she was treated for a throat infection and then sent home.
A week after, the baby fell sick again and was again rushed to the said hospital where Etwaroo was told to continue treatment.
On July 1, 2018, Akeela woke up and was reportedly in a lot pain when she was again rushed to the hospital where she was given an injection, but things took a turn for the worst, which led to the baby being admitted to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she remained for a month and was later transferred to GPHC.
Akeela was later diagnosed with meningitis and tests conducted at a private hospital revealed that she had chronic neurological disabilities and severe brain abnormality, which caused excessive fluids in her brain. It was recommended that a bilateral craniotomy be done.
