… Father appeals for assistance to bring body home
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Rayon Fredericks, who underwent brain surgery in Trinidad two weeks ago to remove a tumor, died on Tuesday night while hospitalised in Port of Spain.
According to the boy’s grieving father, Leslie Fredericks, his son was recovering from surgery and was set to return home yesterday, when he developed an infection.
“The surgery was successful and he was okay, we were supposed to come home on Wednesday, but then Rayon had a fever and the doctors told us that he picked up some infection, he did not make it, Rayon did not make it,” Mr. Fredericks said.
The Fredericks family, from Hururu, in the Upper Berbice River, was faced with the grim reality of their son’s condition late last year as the young man was preparing to sit the CSEC examination.
After frequent complaints to his parents about a worsening hearing problem, Rayon was taken to a doctor in the city, who subsequently informed the worried family that their son was suffering from a brain tumor and would need urgent surgery to save his life, a procedure that needed to be done in Trinidad.
Ever since the prognosis, the boy’s father, Leslie Fredericks, has been tirelessly fighting to raise the money to pay for the surgery and to fund the trip overseas.
After months of fundraising events and donations from kind -hearted individuals, the family was able to accumulate enough money for the operation and Mr. Fredericks and his son departed for Trinidad on July 28, through the kind sponsorship of Caribbean Airlines Limited, who donated the tickets.
Despite being told that the road to recovery would be a long and arduous one, Leslie Fredericks drew comfort in the thought that his son was granted a second chance at life and expressed gratitude to all of those persons and organizations that made that possible for Rayon.
In a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday, Mr. Fredericks again expressed gratitude for the support the family received and once again appealed to the public for assistance in bringing his son home to be buried.
He said, “We now have to come home so that we can bury my son, we do not have the funds to bring him home and we are asking for help.”
An account has been set up at Republic Bank, with account number 508- 7721 to receive donations, or interested persons can contact Mr. Leslie Fredericks on telephone numbers 676-5903 /690-7908 or 0011-868-706-4268.