Shal­iza?Has­sanali

RALPH BAN­WARIE

To­co/San­gre Grande MP Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith yes­ter­day vis­it­ed 600-pound Maris­sa Nel­son af­ter learn­ing about her plight in a se­ries of T&T Guardian sto­ries ear­li­er this week.

Nel­son, 32, suf­fers with lym­phoede­ma, which has left her limbs enor­mous­ly swollen and over­weight. For the past four years Nel­son has been con­fined to her bed be­cause of her med­ical con­di­tion and weight.

Jen­nings-Smith said yes­ter­day it was on­ly af­ter read­ing of Nel­son's plight in the Guardian news­pa­per she re­alised the ail­ing woman lives in her con­stituen­cy and de­cid­ed to vis­it her.

Jen­nings-Smith promised Nel­son im­me­di­ate help to ad­dress some of her needs, as well as fol­low-up vis­its.

Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh and Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Cher­ry-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn al­so plan to vis­it Nel­son at her John­son Street, Va­len­cia, home to see the con­di­tions in which she lives.

Deyals­ingh said he would have to "arrange a date and time" to meet Nel­son, while Crichlow-Cock­burn took up Nel­son's in­vi­ta­tion.

"I am will­ing to vis­it her," Crichlow-Cock­burn wrote in re­sponse to a text mes­sage, but did not state when.

Nel­son, on Thurs­day, made an ap­peal to Deyals­ingh and Crichlow-Cock­burn for as­sis­tance.

Among those who of­fered as­sis­tance af­ter her sto­ry was pub­lished were DE­HIX, an in­ter­na­tion­al char­i­ta­ble or­gan­i­sa­tion; the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex; Pil­lars of Har­mo­ny; and mem­bers of the pub­lic.

"I want to see them not talk the talk, but walk the talk. It is left to be seen what will hap­pen from here on­wards," Nel­son said.

Yes­ter­day, Nel­son said she had a tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion with Den­nis Hicks, founder of DE­HIX, who is based in the Unit­ed States.

"Mr Hicks said he was in the process of speak­ing to some doc­tors abroad to help me get the gas­tric by­pass surgery done. He al­so in­di­cat­ed that he would talk to some of the doc­tors in Trinidad to see what could be done here as well," Nel­son said.

Nel­son said when she heard that Deyals­ingh and Crichlow-Cock­burn were will­ing to as­sist, she felt a re­newed hope. Deyals­ingh said his min­istry was ready and will­ing to do all it could to help Nel­son, while Crichlow-Cock­burn said a care­giv­er could be pro­vid­ed for Nel­son.

On Tues­day and Wednes­day, Nel­son's sto­ry was high­light­ed on the front page, where she called on the Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene and pro­vide spe­cial­ist med­ical care, ur­gent med­ica­tion and a 24-hour care­giv­er.

"I would like Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh in par­tic­u­lar to come and vis­it me at my home to see how I live and how I do every­thing on my bed so they can get a bet­ter idea of what I face on a dai­ly ba­sis.

"I don't want them to take my word for it. I want them to wit­ness it first­hand be­cause what I go through is hell," Nel­son said.

Nel­son re­lies on her 68-year-old moth­er, Sylvia, for as­sis­tance but she too is hand­i­capped af­ter one of her legs was am­pu­tat­ed from com­pli­ca­tions with di­a­betes.

Told that both min­is­ters were in­ter­est­ed in vis­it­ing her, Nel­son said she was thrilled by the news and is await­ing their ar­rival.