Oh God! Woman pleads for help to do heart surgery

“It’s like if you don’t have money and you get sick, you ago dead,” Michelle Cumberland, who is suffering from an enlarged heart reasoned.

“Why it [health care] have to be so expensive? Oh God.”

The 43-year-old mother of three has been suffering from the debilitating condition for two years and needs to undergo an angiogram surgery (special X-Ray of the heart using dyes), which will tell doctors the exact location of the blockage so it can be rectified. 

However, Cumberland, who also suffers from the sickle cell disease, has been forced to cancel the life-saving surgery four times because she cannot afford it. While she waits, her condition worsens.

“The heart do me so bad. Numerous times I’ve been admitted to hospital. I feel pain in the heart. Sometimes me can’t breathe properly. The last time I was admitted, I was feeling severe pains to me left side and I couldn’t use it. I thought I was having a stroke,” Cumberland recalled.

After seeing the struggles the Mountain View, Kingston, resident has had to endure, a doctor at the University Hospital of the West Indies has arranged for her to do the surgery at a reduced cost, $700,000.

However, that is still far beyond Cumberland’s reach, as she cannot work because of her fragile condition, her parents are dead, her children’s fathers are either dead or absent, and her siblings are not in a position to assist.

“I even write to Ministry of Health. I got the invoices and sent them, but nothing has worked out. I went to the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education also, but they say a lot of people are asking for help and some of them went long before me,” Cumberland explained.

Since falling ill, Cumberland has had to rely on the benevolence of her church family for food, schooling her children, and purchasing her medication, but she hopes that she will undergo surgery one day soon, so she can give her children, ages 17, 10, and 5, a better life.

“It would mean the world to me if anyone would assist me to get the surgery. I know the feelings would bring tears of joy to my eyes. I’ve been waiting for son long. It’s hard when you’re poor,” Cumberland said.

 ...Those wishing to assist may contact Michelle Cumberland at 1 876 879 0732.