SASCHA WIL­SON

While help is com­ing in for 11-month-old Ky’Mani Thomp­son, the fam­i­ly has not yet reached the US$16,000 need­ed for the surgery to save his sight.

Par­ents Sarah Greene-Thomp­son and D’An­dre Thomp­son have been giv­en an­oth­er ap­point­ment, hav­ing missed the first ap­point­ment last month be­cause they did not have the funds at The Jack­son Memo­r­i­al Med­ical Cen­tre in Mi­a­mi for Oc­to­ber 15.

This ap­point­ment, in­clu­sive of con­sul­ta­tion and ex­am­i­na­tion, costs US$5,000.

Af­ter the par­ents made an ap­peal for help through the T&T Guardian, sev­er­al peo­ple called pledg­ing their help and Adams Op­ti­cal in San Fer­nan­do do­nat­ed a spe­cial sun­glass­es.

The Hope of a Mir­a­cle Foun­da­tion and its Chil­dren’s Health Pro­gramme which of­fers fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to sick chil­dren from T&T to ob­tain their med­ical treat­ment or surg­eries abroad once it is not avail­able here, has been in­stru­men­tal in get­ting help for Ky’Mani.

She said, “I re­ceived a lot of calls when the ar­ti­cle first came out and peo­ple who did not have mon­ey just called to of­fer a words of com­fort, share their own ex­pe­ri­ence with sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions and al­so prayed for Ky’Mani.”

Greene-Thomp­son said Kathyann Thomas-El­bourne saw the ar­ti­cle and of­fered to do a Tea Par­ty and Fash­ion show to raise funds for Ky’Mani which will be held on Oc­to­ber 7 at the Pleas­antville Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre from 4 pm to 7 pm.

The cost of the tick­ets are $150. In­ter­est­ed per­sons can con­tact Kathyann 738-9033.

“We are go­ing to see about our visa. So we are just go­ing along, but we are hop­ing and pray­ing,” she said.

Ky’Mani is suf­fer­ing with Bi­lat­er­al Stage Five Retinopa­thy of pre­ma­tu­ri­ty (ROP) and is in dan­ger of be­com­ing blind.

The con­di­tion af­fects pre­ma­ture ba­bies. Ky’Mani was born at 29 weeks with a weight of 1.365 kgs at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2017.

There is no pae­di­atric vit­reo-reti­nal sur­geon in T&T to per­form the surgery on Ky’Mani, who, ac­cord­ing to a let­ter from Dr Anil Ar­moogum of the Oph­thal­mol­o­gy De­part­ment of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (SFGH), needs high­ly spe­cialised care to avoid blind­ness.

Greene-Thomp­son be­lieves Ky­Mani can on­ly see bright lights. The par­ents have al­so set up a Go Fund Me ac­count for Ky’Mani.

Any­one in­ter­est­ed can make de­posits to the fol­low­ing ac­counts, but must spec­i­fy that it’s for Ky’Mani Thomp­son - Re­pub­lic Bank #110008912001; Roy­al Bank #9311033923; Re­pub­lic Bank #110-215-383-331.

Greene-Thomp­son can be con­tact­ed at 394-3926 or sarah-greene-thomp­son@hot­mail.com.