A family is searching for hope as doctors struggle to attend to the increasing medical challenges plaguing their two-year-old son.
Little Lloyd Griffith Jr in his hospital bed
Lloyd Griffith Jr was just like any other bouncy toddler with a promising future ahead until last Christmas season when his parents discovered a worrying lump in his stomach area.
Doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) took a while before they confirmed his parents’ worst nightmare; their baby boy was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
It is a yolk sac tumour in the umbilical region of his stomach and according to the parents, doctors fear that the tumour is growing rapidly and extending to other organs.
Already, the disease has progressed and the child is suffering from hernia, a condition in which part of an organ is displaced and protrudes through the wall of the cavity containing it.
His tummy is swollen and his skin around his navel is peeling.
In addition, the affected region has also developed some kind of inflammatory sac, believe to be an abscess.
Little Lloyd Jr, also known as Ovir, has been bedridden in the hospital since December and his mother, who is a nurse attached to the GPHC, has not left the institution’s compound since.
The child has already completed one session of chemotherapy and has already lost most of his hair.
He has two more sessions to complete before his parents can begin thinking of surgery, any of which will be high-risk and life threatening.
His godfather, Chris Gopaul told Guyana Times that it pains him to see a lively baby boy deteriorate before his eyes.
“I know that this boy went into the hospital chubby and regular and now he is very thin, no hair left on his head, but he is not irritable and if he had stage four cancer, he would have been crying and in a lot of pain which is not the situation… he is eating as per normal and playing,” he explained, expressing some scepticism over the diagnosis.
The parents have also expressed concerns over the doctors being forthcoming with information regarding their son’s health status.
According to the father, there are three teams of doctors attending to his son, but noted that it is challenging to get all of them together to get a better idea of what is happening with his child.
“You hear one thing from one doctor and another thing from another doctor, so you don’t really know what’s going on,” he expressed.
The mother, Amanda, also attested to difficulties from some of the doctors in administering healthcare to her son.
“One team hardly comes to see my son and when they do come, they talk for a few minutes and then leave. I just want a straightforward answer about my son’s condition,” she told this newspaper.
Another major challenge is finding the finances for the number of different tests and medical treatment their son has to endure.
His father is desperately searching for a stable job, but does odd jobs here and there just to earn an additional income to support his son’s medical expenses, as well as to maintain the everyday expenses of the family.
But for the most part, the expenses are covered by his mother who is finding it increasingly difficult to proportion her earnings to cover all expenses in their lives.
The family is pleading with the general public to assist in saving their baby boy’s life.
