UPDATE: Some $3,915 raised for Kelani
According to the webpage http://www.gofundme.com/treatmentforkelani the amount donated so far came from 75 persons over a period of nine months.
Kelani has been diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy following complications at birth and requires treatment that he cannot access in the Virgin Islands.
Mother of the child Lashauna Smith in a note on the website posted 10 days ago said, “I do apologize to persons who are currently having issues making donations to the site. I am not sure as to why this is occurring. In efforts to make life easier I have acquired a bank account at First Caribbean Bank for those of you in the BVI. Acc# 2345151441 under the name of Kelani Rolle. I am forever grateful to all of you for your heartfelt acts of kindness towards my son and I wish nothing but the immense blessings of God to each and all of you.”
See previous story posted on April 28, 2014:
Mother starts online donor portal to fund son’s care
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI - A young mother Lashauna Smith is fighting for her son Kelani to lead a normal life as he has been diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy following complications at birth and requires treatment that he cannot access in the Virgin Islands.
She is presently in the United States where she is trying to manage the care of her two year old until she raises enough money to commence his treatment, referred to as Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments. She and Kelani have been in the US for a number of months.
She has started an online campaign to raise funds through a webpage http://www.gofundme.com/treatmentforkelani where to date she has a little over $900 raised of a target of $25,000. The site lists the names of the donors and amounts donated as well as brief personal messages of love, support and well wishes from the donors to the mother and her child.
A statement posted on the webpage written as if in the words of the two-year old child explains that during birth he suffered loss of oxygen from a tight cord around his neck. He also swallowed meconium during birth.
“I had to be resuscitated as I wasn't breathing and I was transported to the NICU where I was placed in an incubator and had to use a ventilator to help me breathe. I had many seizures in my first week of life as well as bleeding on my brain, tachycardia and edema,” the mother writes, adoringly as if her infant were speaking these words.
“I ask that you please make a donation on my behalf so that I may have this treatment at the San Diego Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Center in California. No donation is too small. I thank you all for taking the time out to help me! God Bless,” he ‘wrote’.
According to the mother she is in the process of negotiating with the board of the medical institution where her son requires the treatment to see whether they could make a start with the delivery of some of the care.
“I was speaking to the gentleman today, CSO of the San Diego Hyperbaric Centre and he said that he would speak to the other members of his Board to see whether they could try to work with me to at least do ten sessions,” she said speaking exclusively to Virgin Islands News Online yesterday April 28, 2014. She said 40 such sessions are considered one treatment.
“Hopefully they will agree to this,” she adds. “I want to send a message to the people that it is not about pity. This is not a pity party…this is a fight. I am fighting for my son and children of the Virgin Islands with special needs. We need to realize that children with special needs are very intelligent. Not a lot of them can vocalize and say what they want but they excel in other aspects. And we can’t just throw them by the wayside because they are this small percentage,” she said.
“This is a fight. Children with special needs need an advocate and if it has to start with me through my son I accept. I would give anything to be at home but my home is not in a position to help me care for my son,” she said.
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