New limb beneficiary feels like a man again

Where despair once held him captive, Chrishawn Cornwall now walks with renewed purpose.

In 2020, Cornwall's world came tumbling down. The 38-year-old father of three was walking with his wife to the bus stop when he felt a cramp in his left leg. He initially brushed it off, but by the time he got home, the feeling had grown so intense that he decided to visit the doctor. Over the next few months, he visited private medical practitioners who theorised several causes, ranging from pinched nerves to poor circulation. During this time, a wound which started as a small cyst got worse, and various sets of medication did nothing to alleviate the pain.

The once vibrant cabinetmaker was left dependent on his wife, as he could no longer make the furniture that supported his family financially. After weeks of no answers, Cornwall was admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) where he underwent a series of tests, which provided no further answers. Doctors at the KPH advised him that they would have to amputate his leg. He resisted and urged the medical team to discharge him. But after some time, he came around. In December 2020, the hospital undertook the life-altering surgery. Unable to cope with his new reality, he fell into depression.

"When they discharged me and I went home, I felt like I didn't want to see anybody. I didn't want to go on the road, I didn't want to do anything," Cornwall told JIS News. But his wife, Michelle Ann, never stopped encouraging him to return to the things that he enjoyed before losing the limb.

"Every evening she came in, she said 'You don't go on the road? You need to go look for your family and your friends. You need to go out! You can't just stay in the house,'" Cornwall recounted. At his wife's coaxing, he gradually regained his confidence and started using crutches to get around.

$50-MILLION INITIATIVE

Cornwall also began visiting the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, at Mona in St Andrew, to which he was referred while at the KPH. He had consultations for a prosthetic leg, but the costs proved prohibitive, as his wife was the only one financing the household. Cornwall explained that his mother intervened and sent him the proceeds from a partner plan to make a payment for a prosthetic leg. But when he went to make the payment in 2024, Cornwall was informed about the 'New Limb, New Life' Programme that would change his life. The programme, a partnership between the ministries of Health and Wellness and Labour and Social Security, had recently got under way. The $50-million initiative provides prostheses for patients between ages 13 and 60 who lost limbs due to health conditions or trauma.

Since its inception, 120 Jamaicans have benefited from the initiative. Cornwall said that after signing up for the programme, assessments were conducted by medical practitioners from Surgix and the order placed for his prosthetic leg. He said he was pleasantly surprised that the entire process took only a few months from signing up to him being fitted with his leg in March.

"Me never know it would come through so fast. Right now, I feel like myself again. I am working again, and it feels like I have my two feet," Cornwall beamed. He recalled how difficult it was for him to do his carpentry work while navigating on crutches and relying on others to complete some basic tasks.

"I feel like a man again. I can take care of my family," he mused. Cornwall said that he is grateful that he was given the chance to regain his independence.

For others who are on a similar journey, whether they are faced with the prospect of having a limb amputated or have recently lost a limb, Cornwall is urging them to have faith.

"It's just a limb [that] you lose. Life is the greatest. Once you have life, there is hope. You just lose a limb, and it can be replaced. You have to just tell yourself 'Don't give up,'" he advised.

The devoted father of three added that it is also important to have a strong support system, and credited his wife for her strength and resilience in taking care of the family while he was incapacitated.

"She never left me an inch. She worked full time and even one time for the day, she came to the hospital to visit me. She was there for me fully," Cornwall said.