The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

SICK teen Taranique Thurston is expected to go through another two weeks of testing before doctors in Florida determine when and how they will treat her brain cyst and the resulting fluid that has collected around her brain.

Her mom, Ginette Caty, told The Tribune she was relieved to learn Taranique had not yet suffered any irreparable damage to her brain due to her protracted healthcare journey.

The 16-year-old experiences shaking in her hands, and is unable to stand up straight unassisted - symptoms her doctors believe have been exacerbated by the time she spent unable to travel to the United States.

“We have an eye test on November 13, and after that test another MRI, and then a heart test. They said after those results they will make a decision,” Ms Caty said.

“(Taranique) has a problem with her limbs, her hands shake, and with her feet, she’s unbalanced. She’s unable to stand up straight. The doctor said maybe it was putting pressure to the head causing dizziness and headaches. (The doctor), she told her to close her eyes and stand up, and she couldn’t, she was leaning on two sides.

“The surgeon said for now we don’t need to be stressed or scared, because if (Taranique) gets stressed out or worried it could be worse. She has to keep eating healthy.”

Bahamian-born Taranique is being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital after gaining entry to the country on an emergency visa on her government-issued certificate of identity.

Taranique was born before her mother became a naturalised citizen, and she was issued a certificate of identity by the Bahamas government in early August, which listed her as a Haitian national.

While officials have maintained that Ms Caty’s naturalisation process would have allowed Taranique to forgo waiting until she was 18 to apply for citizenship, and that the pair did not pursue every available recourse; Ms Caty claims she was repeatedly turned away by officials in her attempts to regularise her child and seek medical assistance from the government.

“We met with the surgical team,” Ms Caty said, giving an update on her daughter’s journey. “Looked at the scans of the inside of the brain, saw the fluid - it’s only on one side. It messed up her hands, limbs, one of her eyes is really bad and she has hard breathing on her chest.

“The doctor said she feels like it could have been avoided if we didn’t take so long to bring her over, but the damage can still be corrected.

“She said they kept us there too long. The last time we went to the doctor in Nassau, he asked (Taranique) to hold her hand out and it was shaking from then, and when he saw that that was when he did up the referral because he was like this is what it does.

“If we had gotten here (in the US) from April, maybe it wouldn’t have messed up the limbs, but you know funds played a big part in this. The eye test is about $400 or $500.”

Taranique’s family has set up a gofundme.com campaign to raise funds to cover the costs of her medical tests, and inevitable surgery to remove the brain cyst.

The campaign was created by J J Jordan, and can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/hbqr5y-brain-surgury.

Ms Caty continued: “But we’re still here, we have a lot of follow-ups. She has pain in her shoulders. You need your hands to work, to write, you need your feet, you can’t be walking and falling all over the place. This isn’t something overnight. It was very hurtful to Taranique to hear that. My daughter needs her hands to write, her feet to stand up. She don’t need to be jittery and unbalanced.

“But (the surgical team) made us feel very comfortable,” Ms Caty added.

“Things could go wrong but we’re here, we’re here.”