Baby needs your help to survive
You’d never know it by looking at her, but the subject of our next story needs your help. Janelle Chanona reports.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
To a stranger, thirteen-month-old Jaesha Daly is a normal active toddler with a healthy appetite and a ready smile. But little Jaesha was born with a condition extremely rare to children in Belize called gastroschisis.
Caroline Jones, Jaesha’s Mother
“When she was born, everything was exposed, she was a tiny little baby and all her intestines and stomach and everything were outside.”
Three hours after she was born, Jaesha was rushed into surgery. Doctors were able to stretch her skin to cover the vital organs and performed a colostomy to help with digestion, but the infant was not expected to live.
Caroline Jones
“From the day she was born, the worst thing I could have heard was that she only had ten to fifteen percent chance of surviving. If they had told us fifty percent, then we could have had more hope, but ten to fifteen percent chance it was like they were saying she’s not going make it, no way possible. From then her dad and I, we had faith, we had hope that she will make it. I told him if she’s supposed to be here she will make it.”
And she has made it much further than anyone dared hope. Today, she continues to make remarkable progress.
Caroline Jones
“She cannot really move how she wants to. She cannot pull herself up. If she’s lying down she cannot just pull herself up, she would have to hold on to something to pull herself up. And most babies start to walk ten, eleven months, by the time they’re one-year-old they’re already walking. When she was born the doctor said that if she doesn’t get this operation she won’t walk any at all. Thankfully she’s walking, but she just started to walk about two weeks ago.”
The family has had to be especially vigilant about caring for and protecting the baby.
Caroline Jones
“We have to be very careful with her because she has pure skin protecting the intestines and the stomach. And with the colostomy she doesn’t have a colostomy bag, so we have to change her like every half hour. It’s very, very frustrating, but it’s something we’ve learnt to live with already.”
“It itches her a lot and she has to scratch all the times. Sometimes she cries… But she’s getting older and then we don’t know what to expect. Even the doctors here in Belize don’t know what to expect because it’s not a condition that they are familiar with in Belize. Dr. Coleman mentioned that she is the first baby to survive this condition.”
Through the efforts of her parents and help from family and friends, a Belizean doctor, Wahib Mena, and a team of his colleagues from Birmingham, Alabama have agreed to treat Jaesha free of cost. But time is running out because the doctors will only be available until the ninth of September and her family has thus far been unable to raise the money to defray the expense of the trip.
Caroline Jones
“We are just asking for help to cover travel expenses and other miscellaneous stuff. That’s all we’re asking for, something between three to four thousand dollars. We’re not asking for any more than that. We need to raise about that amount.”
Janelle Chanona
“When you look at Jaesha what do you see?”
Caroline Jones
“I see hope, I see faith. That’s her middle name, Jaesha Faith Daly. And I know she will be going for her operation and she will be returning a normal child.”
Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
If you would like to help Jaesha Daly, please contact her mother: Caroline Jones at phone number 223-6633 or make a deposit at any Belize Bank branch at account number 9555.
