Disabled senior citizen hopes to walk again
Disabled 70-year-old Garnette Young said she is still hanging on to hope, through prayers and spiritual supplication, that she will walk again on her own.
Young, a resident of Church Road, Bog Walk, St Catherine, is paralysed from her waist down. She said that she became disabled following the passage of Hurricane Sandy nine years ago.
"I remember going to bed and the storm happen and I did get wet. I remember waking up with pain over mi lower body. I realised that I couldn't move, and it get worse since. The result is that I can't help myself," Young said. She said that her doctor is also at a loss as to what is causing her paralysis and she has to do a CAT scan to possibly unearth what may be ailing her. Young, a mother of three, said that she was born and raised in Bog Walk and has always been active.
"I am always here, and I only left to live in Portland for a short while. I was a vendor that sells clothes all over the place. I would walk and sell the clothes, so this condition really make mi feel bad and helpless," Young said. It was revealed that her immediate needs comprise a lift, pampers and basic food items.
"Each time I wake up to use the bathroom, I have to be moved by these two young people who have being assisting me. Each time mi here dem groan, as I am a person who is heavy. So they need help," Young said. Her caregiver, Moya Allen, said that the senior citizen is in urgent need of assistance, as the recent rains have flooded the house.
"We need to have a Hoyer Lift to help us move her, as she is weighty and it's affecting our backs. We are willing to care for her, but the weight is a factor, and she also needs financial assistance to purchase Pampers as she has to be changed three times daily," Allen said.
The Hoyer Lift brand is made up of different machines that are set up near to the bed of the physically challenged individual and adjusted to lift them. This eases the stress and strain of manually lifting the individual. Young gets some assistance from the church community, but needs more helping hands in order to survive. In addition to her condition, Young has an overdue electricity bill that is now at $43,000.
"When I see the bill I almost fainted. Somebody asked me if a club mi a run. When mi tink of it mi almost cry, but I still believe that God can help me, so I can't give up," Young said.
Persons wishing to assist Garnette Young may contact Moya Allen at (876) 866-4179