By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterHE CANNOT talk much but every lusty cry from five-year-old Keyshaun Reid makes his mother's heart sing with joy. It was just a few months ago, she said, that he could barely make sounds, his body weakened by congenital heart disease. Now doctors assure her that in time, Keyshaun will be like any other five-year-old.
Up to September, 31-year-old Chevanese Thompson and her common-law-husband, Gregory Reid, had kept up a determined fight to get their son the treatment he needed to have a normal life.
It was then that their prayers and need were answered by paediatric cardiologists at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Kiwanis Club of Kingston.
LIFE-GIVING SURGERY
Through its 'Little Hearts Beat Faster' programme, the Kiwanis Club helped little Keyshaun obtain life giving surgery at the Geisinger Medical Centre in Danville, Pennsylvania in the United States.
"I am looking forward to everything. To him walking, talking, going to school. Everything. Just what a normal five-year-old should be doing. I pray to God and the doctor said everything should be okay. I am looking forward to it," Ms. Thompson said via telephone last Monday, laughing happily each time her son bellowed in the background.
Keyshaun is the 36th child to have been helped by the Kiwanis Club since it began its Children's Heart programme in 1990. The Kiwanis club tries to help at least three children each year, said Dr. John Soas, chairman of the Kiwanis Club's 'Young Children Priority One' programme. Children are selected by local medical staff based on which child is most in need, he explained.
Keyshaun stayed at Geisinger for one month, with his mother, for whom expenses such as lodging and aeroplane tickets were taken care of by local and overseas Kiwanians, Geisinger medical and national airline, Air Jamaica.
GREAT IMPROVEMENT
They returned to the island on October 22 and since then, Ms. Thompson said her son has greatly improved.
"After the surgery, he was so thin. But now he has started to eat again. He eats just about anything now. Not even water him no drink and now he's drinking water. Oh, my God. We have been through a rough time but the Lord was there all the time and bring him right back to me and I am so happy," Ms. Thompson continued.
While Keyshaun's family celebrate, Dr. Soas said the Kiwanis Club is already preparing to help child No. 37, an emergency case which is expected to get medical attention in December and child 38, who will go to the medical centre in February 2004.
Ms. Thompson said she will always be grateful to God and to the people who helped her son.
"Words cannot express it. I thank them a million and 10 times. I don't know how I am gonna repay them but the Lord will do it for me. The Kiwanis, the nurses and everybody was so good. They were like my family. They comfort me. They asked if I am okay. They even bought me chocolates," she remembered.
