RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Nine years af­ter un­der­go­ing open-heart surgery, 26-year-old Ra­keesh Roodal is now bat­tling new med­ical prob­lems that have left him de­pen­dent on oth­ers for ba­sic mo­bil­i­ty and dai­ly care.

Roodal was 17 years old when doc­tors di­ag­nosed him with a hole in the wall be­tween the low­er cham­bers of his heart, a con­di­tion called a ven­tric­u­lar sep­tal de­fect.

Now, years af­ter his surgery, his fam­i­ly says he is strug­gling again, hav­ing de­vel­oped a her­nia and di­a­betes.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, his fa­ther Ma­hadeo Roodal said Roodal ex­pe­ri­ences bouts of weak­ness, dizzi­ness, and shak­ing.

“I am plead­ing for as­sis­tance for my son. He has al­ready un­der­gone two surg­eries and now has to go back in for an­oth­er op­er­a­tion. He can­not man­age to climb the stairs,” Ma­hadeo said.

He not­ed that their home was no longer con­ducive to Roodal’s med­ical chal­lenges and they need­ed some as­sis­tance to build a room down­stairs for him.

“Some­times he sits down­stairs in a chair, of­ten falling asleep on him­self. If I can get ma­te­ri­als to build a small room down­stairs, it would help. It’s hard for me. I can­not car­ry him up the stairs. He is a grown man,” Ma­hadeo said.

Ex­plain­ing Roodal’s com­pli­ca­tions, Ma­hadeo showed a med­ical re­port dat­ed 2016 which showed that one of the ma­jor ar­ter­ies in Roodal’s heart, the aor­ta, was lo­cat­ed on the right side in­stead of the left. To man­age the blood flow, doc­tors placed a band around one of the main ar­ter­ies lead­ing to his lungs.

The re­port said Roodal’s heart was func­tion­ing with­out ma­jor leak­age or dam­age in oth­er ar­eas but pres­sure re­mained high in the artery lead­ing to the lungs. Ma­hadeo be­lieves that the valve may now be leak­ing but he wants doc­tors to as­sess his son be­fore it is too late.

Ma­hadeo ex­plained that Roodal is be­ing treat­ed at clin­ics in Ma­yaro and San­gre Grande. “Right now the patch they put in his heart is leak­ing,” he said.

With­out a job, Ma­hadeo said the fam­i­ly is strug­gling to meet med­ical and dai­ly ex­pens­es. “Ra­keesh has di­a­betes and needs fur­ther surgery. The doc­tors at Mount Hope told us he needs more care,” he said.

Roodal, who al­so spoke briefly, said, “I ap­pre­ci­ate it. Some­one please help me.”

Mean­while, his sis­ter Akeisha Roodal said he can­not work due to his con­di­tion.

“It get­ting hard for him to walk so if we could get a wheel­chair for him, it would do us good,” she added. She said every day she prays for strength to deal with her broth­er’s con­di­tion. Her fa­ther is al­so ail­ing and Akeisha said hav­ing a prop­er home would go a long way in help­ing them.

Any­one who wants to help the fam­i­ly with build­ing ma­te­ri­als or as­sist Roodal with a wheel­chair and her­nia surgery can call Akiesha at 323-7306. Do­na­tions can al­so be made to Ma­hadeo Roodal’s ac­count at Re­pub­lic Bank, Ma­yaro Branch to ac­count num­ber 470462234731.