36 Atoll Avenue

Harbour View

Kingston 17

December 9, 2014

Human Resource Manager

The Atrium

Third Floor

32 Trafalgar Road

Kingston 10

Dear Sir / Madam,This letter is a sincere and desperate cry for help. The problem is that our family has been plagued with a series of medical conditions that have driven us off the financial cliff. In 2009 my husband Edly Stewart survived a failed back surgery. This left him unable to walk or pass waste without assistance. With months of physiotherapy Edly was able to walk with the assistance of a walker. In 2012 my husband suffered from a major stroke at the University Hospital that once gain, leaving him completely crippled. Since the stroke in 2012 my husband was never able to independently use his bladder or bowel. He was taught how to catheterize himself and either my daughter or I would evacuate his bowels. My daughter and I do everything for Edly except for breathing. His only means of communication includes blinking his eyes and when he felt strong enough, nod his head slightly. On his good days I would watch him gradually move his head and try to scratch his eye. He appears to have signs of dementia like decreased motivation and impaired thinking skills and decreased memory. This is particularly unfortunate because he was once such a strong, intelligent and loving husband and father. Swallowing is hard for my husband so he is reluctant to chew his food. If he swallows he stands the chance of food traveling into his lungs, resulting in pneumonia. His food, on account of this, is pureed. We hoped that he would pull the food through a straw or slurp it from a spoon. He unfortunately lacked the strength to accomplish either of these tasks for any length of time. We then forced his lips open, placed a kitchen funnel between his teeth and gradually poor the food into his mouth from a cup. This is how Edly was being fed for approximately the last three years. Urinary tract infections and extremely low sodium levels has had Edly in and out of the hospital since 2012.

Edly is 175lb and 510. My daughter and I struggle to turn him every two to three hours a day. We do not have a hospital bed so it is particularly difficult to sit my husband up at a ninety degree angle in the bed for his feeding time. One of us has to climb up in the bed to lift him up while the other stacks the pillows behind his back. If both my daughter and I cannot be present at the same time one of us is left to struggle and lift him up and stack the pillows behind his back. You would think that things would not get worse but eight weeks ago my husband suffered from severe seizures and another horrible stroke that led to further damaged of his remaining brain cells. He spent ten uncertain dreadful days in the hospital. Edly stopped breathing when he arrived at the hospital so the doctors started pumping oxygen into his lungs. Examination showed that oxygen stopped flowing to his brain for about fifteen minutes or more. The doctors told us that if they stopped providing him with oxygen he would not be able to continue breathing on his own for a long period of time. Edly was in such a vegetative state that the doctors decided that they were going to discontinue any support that would assist Edly with his breathing. We didnt think he would make it through the night. We never left his side. The doctors said he wouldnt make it .That Sunday night Edly proved his resilience. Edly breathed on his own all night. He was doing so well that they admitted him on a medial ward by midday the following Monday and provided him with oxygen. Edly is now home, his eyes are bright, he is moving his fingers and scratching his eyes. Taking care of him is very hard but I still cannot imagine losing him and my soul-mate of forty five years. He is my entire life. My daughter and I are now facing the additional challenge of healing the bed sores he got within three days of being at the hospital. It took us one year to heal the last bed sore he got from the hospital. It is hard to keep up with the purchase of the antibiotics, gauze pads and medical tape. Since Edly is now unable swallow, he is fed through a tube that leads from his belly directly to his stomach. There is absolutely no room in the budget to hire any form of assistance. All of our resources have been depleted. There is $1000 left in NCB Capital market account. The OMNI I took out for my daughters college tuition is almost empty. Our monthly income is $25,000. From said $25,000 we pay for our utilities and basic needs such as food. We also try to purchase my husbands and my daughters medication. My husbands medication alone is very expensive. Eye drops alone cost $6000. Edly takes medication for each of his medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertention, seizures and Parkinsons disease. We have to purchase catheters, lubricating gels and pampers on a regular basis .Great sacrifices have been continually made to purchase these items. The pharmacy in our community has a bill for us of $8000. There is never a time that we do not owe the pharmacy money not to mention the thousands of dollars we owe the hospital. While my husbands diet is maintained there are days when my daughter and I have one small meal for the day. I am getting weaker and thinner. My own brother didnt recognize me. Poor dieting, heavy lifting and the stress of it all have sent me to the hospital once so far. I now have a colon problem. Both my daughter and I suffer from severe back pains in the back, neck and shoulder. My daughter very often has pains in her chest.Additionally my daughters health concerns are also problematic. My daughter has Marfan Syndrome and has already done two heart surgeries so she should not be doing all of this lifting. There is no one else to help me though. It is just us as no other family members are willing to help. My daughter should have completed school years ago but she had to stop for her own health purposes and now she stays home to help me take care of her father. Since the beginning of September my daughter has turned down job offers because I sincerely am too weak to stay home and take care of Edly by myself. I am grieved by the suffering she has endured because of me and her father. She is so young, we are keeping her back. To top it all off I am getting sicker and weaker as a result of the accumulated stress. I am a retired nurse in my mid sixties pounding sand to make ends meets. I get only two to three hours a day. Sometimes I do not sleep at all. I feel my mind slipping away from the lack of rest. Relaxation is blurry, distant memory. My daughter says that I cry every night but I dont notice it any more. The relationship with my daughter is strained. Is there a way that you could help me take care of my husband? We are at our wits end and we need all the help we can get. We cant go on much longer.

Yours sincerely,..

Carmen Stewart.