– Parents would love to get a second opinion

INSTEAD of being at home with his family, a bed in the Georgetown Hospital’s Pediatric Ward is now the base for his toys and all his activities. Having been diagnosed with cancer at just

two years old, little baby Ovir was admitted and is now about to receive the second cycle of chemotherapy.

He had quite a normal birth, but at around two weeks old, a relative told his mom, Ms. Amanda Ford, that she didn’t like how he was breathing. Ever since then, it is a constant trip to the hospital after doctors said that Ovir had asthma.
Then one day, Ovir’s babysitter drew to the attention of his mother that there was a certain hardness on the left side of his belly area. “I took him to the hospital thinking it was an abscess. They did an ultrasound and then advised me to go private and do another ultrasound. I went to Woodlands and did it and took it back to Georgetown and then the doctor transferred me to Surgical Clinic,” explained Ms. Ford.

Speaking to the Chronicle at Ovir’s bedside Friday morning, she recalled that it was on last December(11TH) that she went home and was playing with her son and watching a movie when all of a sudden, his eyes started rolling up and he started throwing up the milk he had just had. “So I get afraid, picked up a little purse with some money and run out the house without even a pamper. I rushed him to ‘Emergency’ and they admit him from then. They admit him for throat infection and fever and then the doctor said it’s a mass.”
Since then, Ovir’s parents were sent to get an MRI done for which the Ministry of Health stood half the cost at the Cancer Institute. They then had to pay to do a CT scan. “The doctor didn’t like what he see in the report and they take him back to Cancer Institute and punctured his belly where they take out something and the father (Mr. Lloyd Griffith) take it to Woodlands Hospital and had to pay $60,000 for that.”

When the report came back, doctors told the parents that baby Ovir was diagnosed with cancer, but they would not say what type. “Until now, the doctor never really tell me what type of cancer it is and then lately, they tell us how my son’s cancer went to stage 4 and is touching the liver. Other people tell me that with stage 4 cancer, you can’t move and would be in pain, but my child is eating and playing as normal.”

A Second Opinion
Ms. Ford is not satisfied with the information being provided to her by doctors who are treating her son. “I’m looking for a second opinion. Doctors here didn’t give me what I’m looking for. I want a straight-up answer. They giving you piece-piece.”
Ovir’s dad had asked the doctors if there was anything positive that he and the family can look forward to, even if it is a 50-50 chance of Ovir’s survival. But the family was not given any such information.

Ms. Ford feels that the doctors are hiding some of the information from her regarding her son’s illness, but she said she prefers to know exactly what is happening with her son. “I can’t feel satisfied here when the doctors not straight-up with me. You getting a piece from this one and a piece from that one. It’s best if they tell me the truth and not hide anything from me so I can keep focus and not be studying what will happen to my son.”

Ovir’s mom works as a ward maid at the said hospital and has since decided to remain at her son’s side on a 24-hour basis. “I don’t go home. I stay right here, work, bathe and sleep on two chairs. I hardly get to sleep because I’m here with him all the time. I play with him, make him happy and I feed and leave him for work and check him every two hours. I don’t know the last day I see my house,” the caring mother related.
After baby Ovir finishes his chemotherapy by Friday, he will go home and rest for 21 days after which he will return to the hospital for the third cycle.

Ovir’s parents would deeply appreciate help from the public to have their son taken to a private institution for a second opinion of his medical condition. They would also love to take him abroad to be treated.
The parents can be reached at 672 1381 (dad) and 686 7033 (mom).