With tears flowing from her eyes, Jasmin Reyes appealed to the Housing Development Corporation and the Minister of Health for help for her paralysed son Randy.
Reyes has been begging for a ground floor apartment instead of the seventh floor where she now lives at the HDC Apartment Building at East Grove, Valsayn. This is because her son is bed-ridden and the elevator in the high-rise is often non-functional.
She said the last straw came last Friday when she had to call the Fire Service for help to get him out the building. Four fire officers responded and manually lifted Randy on his wheelchair down the seven flights of steps. Luckily for Reyes, when she went back home that afternoon the elevator was operational again. But on Sunday when the T&T Guardian visited, the elevator was again on the blitz.
Randy was left paralysed after he was hit by a stray bullet in the head while playing football with his friends on the street in Diego Martin three years ago.
She said she had applied for an HDC house 17 years before she was called two-and-a-half years ago and allocated the rental apartment she is presently living in. However, when she realised it was on the seventh floor she immediately told them her problem.
“When they (referring to HDC officials) called me, I explained to them my situation with my paralysed son and they told me that if I have to wait it would be long, so it was best that I took the apartment and wait for a shortened period for relocation to a ground floor apartment or a house with my own yard,” Reyes said.
“Over two years, going on three and no calls for that relocation. Since the new administration came in I have been trying to get a meeting with them and no success so far. Up to Friday I called the HDC and nothing promising from them.”
But relocation for easier access solely for Randy is not the only problem, as she says her son is in dire need of proper medical care and a professional caregiver. Apart from being paralysed, Randy has a tracheotomy tube in the throat.
Reyes had to quit her nail technician job to be her son’s full-time caregiver. She said she made the sacrifice when she saw her son’s health deteriorate before her eyes while at hospital following the incident, which took place on March 14, 2014. Randy was just 16 years when he was shot. He was a straight A Form Four student of the Mucurapo East Secondary School.
Reyes also has three smaller children, aged five, six and eight, and one 20-year-old son.
She said most times when she goes to the health institutions she is told they have no tracheotomy tubes and even when he goes to the physiotherapy clinic he receives no physiotherapy.
“I am now forced to by these tubes and it costs over US$300 for one and just now the suctioning machine will go down and I will have to buy one, plus all the medication for him I have to purchase. It is very hard for me and overbearing now,” she said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I will always see about my son, but I feel like I need a professional caregiver for him and further medical care, proper medical care.”
She added that since the incident she and her other children have been in need of professional counselling as they all seem to be severely affected mentally.
“My older son lives with a relative but since Randy’s shooting he has been having severe mental issues because he and Randy were very close and almost like twins. Even my younger children cannot deal with it and always talk about Randy and I can see that it is affecting them very badly,” Reyes said.
“You see the HDC do not understand the severity of Randy’s situation and what I am faced with. I cannot just walk into HDC and expect them to see me right away. It is frustrating.”
She said for the past several weekends they have also faced water woes and were forced to form a bucket brigade.
“I just want that relocation to a ground floor apartment or a house where I can have water tanks and that further medical care and help for my son,” Reyes said.
When contacted for comment on the situation, Housing Minister Randall Mitchell said he did not know of Reyes’ case and referred the T&T Guardian to HDC managing director Brent Lyons.
But Lyons said he would have to investigate the matter before responding.
Also contacted on the case, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh suggested that Reyes register her son in a hospital clinic “so that he would be able to get the proper medical care.”
With respect to the professional caregiver services, Deyalsingh said his ministry does not make provision for this, but advised that Reyes go through social services for the necessary aid.
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