Praying for a miracle ... Hoping for help - 22-y-o battles kidney failure

What started out as a normal day for 22-year-old Tashieka Johnson turned into weeks of agonising pain, days without sight and a need for a kidney transplant.

After an elevated blood-pressure reading in February, her mother Charmaine Turner, said her daughter's kidneys were later affected and have been rapidly deteriorating since.

"She was admitted to the Mandeville Regional Hospital, then they sent her home and she was on her medication. All of a sudden her pressure went back up again and we took her to a doctor in Santa Cruz. The pressure went up to 205 and she went into a seizure," she said. Turner said when her daughter regained consciousness, she realised she had lost her ability to see.

"We went back to the hospital, we did some test and when the results came back the doctors said her two kidneys are failing her... She is in the hospital right now with a terrible pain in her belly and every time she is just vomiting," she said.

The family is now urgently seeking assistance to purchase a catheter, have it surgically inserted and fund the dialysis treatment for Johnson twice weekly.

"The tube cost $55,000 and it cost $90,000 to put it in. ... If she does not get tubes, she will die. The tubes will have to work [ for] the kidneys until someone can donate a kidney... When she gets the tube she will have to go on the [dialysis] machine two times a week privately and that cost $30,000 for each week," said Turner.

A heartbroken Turner, who could no longer hold the tears, explained that her daughter is the breadwinner of the family and stops at nothing to do what she can for them.

"It is very rough; we have sleepless nights. Knowing that she is a young person, she never sick before and she is going through this. She has a bar for herself and when her bar is not running, she go out and work at other bars to make money for us to survive and eat... From this happen I don't sleep and I hardly eat..."

She continued: "When I go to the hospital and see her in pain and throwing up it is very hard for us. So I am asking anyone out there who is able to help us and anybody out there that can pray for her to pray because God is miracle working God and we are depending on God to help us."

Turner said her daughter never wavered in her efforts to help her while she was sick, and as a mother, she is trying her best to do the same for her.

"I have six children and she is the first girl for me. She always tell me 'mommy I am the one who is going to make you proud'. When I took sick with the [hypertension, diabetes and asthma] and admit in the hospital and she listen to the doctors' [advice] on what I need to eat, she took care of me when I got home," said Turner.

In hushed tones, Johnson's grandmother also wishes for her granddaughter to see better days.

"I can't even tell you how I feel. I am also sick with diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. Me almost blind in one eye and my granddaughter would be the one rallying around me because I don't have a husband... We just have to depend on God to see us through.." she said.

Because of Turner's inability to work for a steady income due to her illnesses and her family's unfortunate financial state, Turner is hoping that poverty will not cause her daughter to die and that timely help will come their way.

To assist Tashieka Johnson call (876)527-8664 or (876) 508-7678