Man suffering from tumor on the way to U.S. to receive surgery

Earlier today, Christopher Bowman departed Belize to the United States.  It’s been a difficult eleven years for the young man who has been featured regularly in our newscasts.  But despite his medical condition, Bowman has remained optimistic and finally in the next few days, he will be undergoing surgery that will hopefully allow him to live a normal life. News Five’s Isani Cayetano sat with Bowman just before he departed on American Airlines.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Twenty-three year old Christopher Bowman, a Belize City resident who for the past decade has been battling a malignant tumor in the right side of his chest, departed for Oklahoma earlier today to undergo a much needed surgery.  Bowman’s plight with the growth of an uncontrolled mass of tissue in his torso has rendered him paralyzed from the waist down.  Despite his condition having deteriorated over the past few months Chris remains upbeat that the treatment he will receive abroad will allow him to be back on his feet very soon.

Christopher Bowman, Suffering from Tumor

“I dreamt about it day before yesterday that I got up out of this wheelchair and walked again right, and I told my mom and I told my aunt, I told her like this “ma you know what I dreamt about?  I got up out of this wheelchair and walked again.  God healed me just like that, just like that and I felt so fricking happy, happy, happy, happy I felt.”

According to Emilio Zabaneh, a Good Samaritan who has been in Bowman’s corner for the past three years the operation he will be undergoing is a procedure that will only be performed once.

Emilio Zabaneh

Emilio Zabaneh, Assisting Christopher Bowman

“What we’re looking at seems like a one-time procedure but we really don’t know the details to that extent.  All we know is that he will undergo something called an AVMS which is an artero-veno malformation surgery and the cost has come down a lot as the technology has gone up.  But that’s what it sounds like, they’re just going to clip this thing and stop this blood from flowing into the tumor and then the rest is all plastic surgery.”

Christopher Bowman

“I’ll only be there for like three weeks.  I’ll only be there for three weeks because my surgery will take place on Tuesday over there and when my surgery is over they will make me recover for like three weeks and up and they will send me back right.”

The opportunity being afforded to Chris to receive medical treatment in the United States comes after countless hours invested by a network of helpful persons, including Yvonne Moore, to make his surgery a reality.

Yvonne Moore

Yvonne Moore, Assisting Christopher Bowman

“This connection between us has led to other persons getting involved and it encompasses a range of persons from Belize to the United States including professionals and just [other] interested parties who want to see him get well.”

Christopher Bowman

“This is like the first time I’m in a wheelchair paralyzed right. When my uncle sees me in this chair he cries.  He says “I don’t like seeing my nephew in this [wheelchair] at all.  My uncle gets mad and I don’t blame him because my uncle knows that I’m a person who goes around with my little shoebox to shine shoes and thing.  I just tell him not to worry I will regain my strength and I will fight with all I got.”

Christopher Bowman is expected to return to Belize around the first week of May where he is expected to continue receiving treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

Christopher’s medical expenses while in Oklahoma have all been waived and his flight to and from the United States came courtesy of American Airlines.  His sponsors would like to inform the public that they are no longer accepting money or conducting fundraisers on his behalf.