Mystery eye condition clouds teen’s future

Through a voice filled with pain, a St Ann mother, Monique McDougal, is pleading for help to not only heal her 16-year-old daughter Delayna Gordon’s eye, but also to give her a chance to return to the promising path she was on.

“I can’t see my daughter like this. I am not eating, I am not sleeping, I don’t know anything. My memory [gone], my feet are weak. I stop cry because I can’t cry anymore because God Almighty knows best,” said McDougal.

Delayna’s right eye is now bulging abnormally, and for McDougal, it has been heartbreaking to witness.

“From she graduate from high school, she was head girl up there (Steer Town Academy), enuh, and from July the first it start run water. Then we went to a private doctor in Mammee Bay and the doctor said it was sinus because she had drainage in the eyes and ears. So she got some antibiotics pills,” she said. But McDougal told THE STAR that her daughter’s condition deteriorated.

“Then it start with the swelling and then the eyeball start move with the swelling like ... it a push through,” she said.

Although Delayna was not experiencing physical pain, the appearance and condition of her eye worried McDougal. So she returned to the private facility for answers.

“He (the doctor) said if this set of medication don’t help ‘Mi nuh know wah happen to you and you will have to go to an eye specialist’. That’s the exact thing that he said,” McDougal said.

But when the swelling continued, she sought an eye specialist, who immediately called for swift action. Fearing the worst, McDougal took her daughter to Kingston Public Hospital (KPH). There, she said, a test was done, and Delayna was given a strong antibiotic and instructed to return on August 4. But when they did, McDougal said Delayna had to be admitted and was later told that she needed an emergency biopsy. She did the procedure about a week later, spending about $18,000 at the laboratory to which she was referred, and was promised results in four weeks. But the family is still waiting.

“The last test she do, dem discharge her from KPH because them say nothing wrong with the eye and they don’t know why it swell up like that, but they gave me a date for next year,” McDougal said. For Delayna, while her life has changed drastically in a month, she finds comfort in her scholastic achievements.

“I got 11 trophies and a plaque, top student, top girl, principal award, I got a lot. I just wanted to be a firefighter but I don’t know if that is going to work out because I am very short. But I want to be a nurse, I have nine CSEC [passes] including the sciences. I am going to sign up for nursing school,” she said.

With her voice breaking, Delayna shared the emotional toll her condition has taken on her life.

“I don’t go outside. Mi cya go outdoors, mi nuh want nobody see me. When I do [go outside], I wear an eye shield. I don’t really go anywhere from mi leave school because of the situation,” she said.

Anticipating surgery, McDougal spends much of her days on the road, selling tickets for a fundraising luncheon to get her daughter the necessary treatment. She continues to hold tightly to her belief that Delayna, who is her eldest of four children, is “blessed and highly favoured”.

“I can tell you...this girl pronounce dead in my womb in St Ann’s Bay Hospital. She was so big, I got 28 stitches, she weighed almost 11 lbs. The doctor gave me a paper to sign in case she died. This is a blessed child,” she said. Despite her dreams being paused, the lack of a diagnosis and the long road ahead, Delayna continues to hope that help will come.

“Mi not sure what to think, I just wish the surgery go successful so I can go school,” she said.

Persons wishing to assist Delayna Gordon, may donate to National Commercial Bank in the name of Joan McDougal, account number: 584417838.