Son with chronic renal failure needs kidney transplant
NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Satish Gobin, of Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara, is in urgent need of a kidney transplant to save his life.
He has been diagnosed with chronic renal failure and is currently on dialysis, but his parents do not have the money to pay the necessary surgery in India. As a result, they are appealing to the public for kind-hearted support by way of monetary donations in order to raise the required sum of approximately $7M to cover the cost of the surgical operation and related expenses for himself and his mother, Shurene Ragbeer, who will be donating one of her kidneys to her son.
She, a housewife and her husband, James Gobin, a sugar cane harvester, are in a  virtual state of panic, claiming that whatever cash they have been able to garner, from time to time, is quickly exhausted on paying for the dialysis and injections, which, together, cost about $45,000 on each visit to the  centre.
Weeping bitterly as she spoke with the Guyana Chronicle, the woman declared: “If I didn’t have faith, it would seem to me like attempting to fill a barrel with no bottom.”
But, until such time as her son can have the kidney transplant, it is absolutely necessary for him to take the dialysis, even though it is an expensive medical procedure, because it is the only thing keeping him alive.
Dialysis helps the body perform the functions of a failed kidney. The kidneys are responsible for filtering waste or toxins from the blood produced by the body daily. Unless such wastes are adequately removed, they build up and cause sickness in many ways.
The sick teen, Satish, who attended the West Demerara Secondary School, gained passes in nine subjects with good grades, Ragbeer reported.
She said, after leaving school, he was employed as a geo-technician by Caribbean Mineral Mining Corporation just over a year ago and was posted to Golden Hill Resources in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), from where, in December 2009, he returned home for the Christmas holidays.
But while holidaying, he began feeling ill and underwent an examination, by consultant, Dr. G. Singh, at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Last March, tests on Satish led to the diagnosis but, some weeks he gets less than the compulsory thrice weekly treatment and suffers severely.
However, his doctor has advised that, even though dialysis would help in the interim, kidney transplant remains the patient’s best option and time is of essence.
Persons wishing to make donations to assist are asked to deposit them in Scotiabank Account number 10024051 or Republic Bank Account number 769-326-0.
Satish’s parents, who also have his two-year-old sister, have expressed profound thanks, in advance, to all those touched by his predicament and are responding favourably to their appeal.