- Winston SillLittle Daniele as healthy as an ox at home in August Town.
Nashauna Drummond, Freelance Reporter
DANIELE HENRY is the most healthy-sick three-year-old you will ever meet. Danielle was diagnosed with ambiguois genitalia, imperforated anus, respiratory distress and oesophageial atresia. This means that she was born with no anal nor vaginal passage.
"It was very traumatic at first," said her mother, Susan Stephenson. At birth, Danielle had to be fitted with a colostomy. This is a tube fitted in her side, and connected to a bag which collects waste from her body. Danielle has had about five surgeries since birth. At birth, an operation was done to repair Danielle's oesophagus so that she could swallow. She spent the first three and a half months of her life in intensive care. Danielle's condition is very rare. Mystified Jamaican doctors who have never encountered her condition before.
Shortly after her first series of operation one of Danielle's kidneys became swollen. "Sometimes it's frustrating," said Ms. Stephenson. "Every day it's the same thing" she says. She says she doesn't know how they manage as all her time and attention are devoted to Danielle.
Danielle is a typical three-year-old full of an endless source of energy. "People are amazed that she has so many problems and is still alive and well," says Ms. Stephenson.
In August of 2001 Danielle and her mother spent four months in New York doing a series of tests before her first major surgery opening her vaginal passage. The operation was done at Brooklyn Hospital by Dr. Samanthi Raju who reconstructed her vagina and Dr. Lazar who adjusted the colostomy which is now much smaller than the one she wore before. The operation lasted for 12 hours. They returned to the island in December of 2001.
Last Monday February 4, 2002, Danielle and her Mom returned to the United States for her second operation which will involve correcting her anus. After her second operation Danielle will have to be constantly monitored for any complications that may develop as she gets older.
Danielle's operation and living expenses for their stay in the States is being funded in part by the US-based Leaf of Life organisation. To compensate for the remaining cost of the operation, her family has set up an account at Scotia Bank in Liguanea seeking the public's assistance. So far the response was not as they had hoped.
But they are hopeful that things will continue to go well for little Danielle, who herself is an inspiration to her parents and siblings.
