By Telesha Ramnarine 

WHILE having a baby may be smooth sailing for some mothers, others know what it is like to have to put their careers–in fact their entire lives– on hold just to care for the child. Worse yet, things are further complicated if the child is born with an illness or defect.

Mandia Harold Alli, now 31, had just completed her first-year nursing exam and had high hopes of completing the programme within just three years. Little did she know the challenges that were ahead of her; how she would fail the rest of the exams and have to drag on the programme for additional years.

Mandia, born and raised at Annandale, East Coast Demerara, married Jason and before long, their son Nathan was born. She knew well in advance, though, that he was going to be born with a congenital defect. She couldn’t stop thinking what this would mean for the family, and how it would affect her studies and job if she had to care for him around the clock.

Sharing her story on the front bench of the maternity unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where she is employed, Mandia recalled in an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine: “When I heard he was going to be born with a defect,it broke me down. I was very worried and I became very emotional.”

Mandia was constantly worried about her son’s health. “When he was born, he didn’t have one of his lungs fully developed. So it was kind of like a balloon that deflated because of everything in his intestines was up in his chest. His heart had shifted completely to the centre, so he had to be on a machine that was breathing for him.

Little Nathan was just five days old when he had to undergo his first surgery, so Mandia knew for sure that she would need to take time off from the nursing programme to be able to care for him.

Time off
Her principal tutor, Nurse Cleopatra Barkoye, along with other colleagues were very helpful and understanding during this period, and Mrs. Barkoye granted her the time off she needed.

Because of being off of the programme for nine months, Mandia had to repeat an entire year. As she prepared for her final exams, the challenges of caring for her son began piling up. She had no choice than to take him overseas for treatment.

“I continued on the programme, but when I attempted my exams in 2018, I was not able to pass all of my papers. So I had to re-sit two of my papers in March 2019. Unfortunately, I still did not pass both, I passed one,” Mandia related.

But she didn’t let her failure get her down. She thought to herself that it could’ve been worse, she could have failed both exams again. She decided to study over some of the materials and sat the exam last November, coming out successfully.
To get to this point in her life, though, was difficult for Mandia. “When I took him home, I had to watch him, keep him in a 45-degree angle to sleep because it was a case where it was an open surgery to fix his defect. I went into mild postpartum depression; I used to cry every afternoon just being home alone taking care of him,” she remembers.

More complications
Additionally, she was emotionally worried over not being able to complete her exams in the time that she should have. She felt stuck as she saw her friends moving on. Mandia faced yet another challenge when her twin brother, Randy, died of cancer shortly after becoming a certified doctor.

“But I’m really grateful that I have been able to achieve it despite all of my challenges. Sometimes you feel that because you’re in the healthcare profession you wouldn’t have to deal with things like these,” she said.

Despite having to put her nursing career on hold, Mandia says Nathan is still her motivation. “I pushed in the hard studies with the support of my husband, family and friends, and tutors. I studied at the library late at nights, on the weekends, every day after working on the wards where we gained our experience for the practical exams. I never missed a day at the library until exams were over.”

Mandia said she never allowed her failure to keep her from pressing on. “Failure does not mean that you’ll never succeed, but it helps you to keep trying. Sometimes failure comes, but it’s how you choose to deal with it. You can allow it to beat you down and never get up, but I chose to take that failure and step on it.”

At last  

Mandia is now a registered nurse attached to the NICU Department (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). “The nurses in the NICU were great, and incidentally, that’s where I am serving now. I care for the babies here who are ill, have a defect, or who may be hungry. I administer medication and care for their daily needs because their mommies may not always be able to come in to the unit,” she explained.

Little Nathan, now four years old, is a student of the New Guyana School and is doing quite well. “When he was discharged and did his final x-ray, it was a miracle that he had both lungs fully developed. Originally I heard that his lung was going to be fully developed until age eight, but he went home with both lungs. As much as I prepared at home to have an oxygen tank, mask, everything in case he had a respiratory distress, he never did. I did everything I was instructed to do for him.”