The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER is in a race against time to raise money to pay for lifesaving surgery for her four-month-old daughter.

Tanishka Mackey told The Tribune yesterday her daughter Keimyah Ferguson’s doctor has given a grim prognosis that should the child not receive critical surgical intervention by the time she is six months old she could suffer collapsed lungs.

The infant also has a hole in the left side of her heart that needs to be repaired.

The procedure could cost between $150,000 to $500,000.

A Gofundme page has been set up to raise the money which so far has raised $1,555.

Ms Mackey, 28, recalled the day when she received the news of her daughter’s condition. Keimyah, at six weeks old, was having her first check-up.

It was then that the doctor discovered the infant had a heart murmur.

“The next day we went to do an X-ray and an ECG and then we referred to Dr Jerome Lightbourne. We went to him October 13,” Ms Mackey said.

“Everything is mostly functioning at one side of the heart.

“The other side of the heart, which is the left, she has a big hole.

“There is so much blood flow going to the lungs that eventually her lungs could collapse.

“He’s stating that in the sixth month of her life, which will be January 27, that if we don’t do the surgery her lungs could actually collapse and we cannot fix the lungs. We could fix the heart.”

She added: “You could see it in her chest area there’s higher breathing movement in the stomach area to the chest.

“And she is not gaining much weight. They have her on milk that could help her gain weight.

“He told us it could be from $150-500 grand. He is saying that him and the Heart Foundation could possibly bring down the price a bit by negotiating, but he said he’s not going to know a certain price until we come back on the 27th of January to him.”

Both the child’s parents have good insurance, however, neither anticipated a heart problem and did not enrol her for coverage.

Anyone wishing to donate should go to https://gofund.me/2b4fe415.