‘Overwhelming public support’ for four-year-old, stricken with dengue

The father of four-year-old Skai Greenidge has thanked the public for an overwhelming show of support for his daughter as she battles the dengue fever.

Rommel Greenidge told Barbados TODAY that his daughter is currently unconscious in paediatric intensive care.

He said: “From about [last] Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning, my daughter developed a really high fever and some vomiting when we took her to our medical practitioner, he sent us immediately to the QEH [ Queen Elizabeth Hospital] to get some fluids for her because she was severely dehydrated.”

After a long wait, she received the mandatory COVID-19 test but both tests were negative, prompting doctors to suspect dengue, he said.

“I was ordered to take the blood to a laboratory for testing that was done on Sunday morning and it was revealed that she does have dengue,” he said. “At that time she was still in Accident and Emergency waiting for these results so that she could be sent up to the pediatric intensive care unit.”

The infant remains under sedation of the anaesthetic after undergoing a procedure to mend a ruptured vein and is awaiting a second blood transfusion which prompted the public appeal for donations to the blood bank, Greenidge said.

The anxious father said he received a call this morning to inform him that his daughter would need another blood transfusion and he needed to get out the word for donations.

Greenidge told Barbados TODAY: “I reached out to some of my friends in my school group, my work colleagues, friends and family and I had an overwhelming tremendous response from everybody, people came out, they called, they prayed.”

The emotional dad urged Barbadians to take dengue seriously.’

“It’s not just my daughter it could be anybody’s mother, father, sister, daughter,” he said. “What we are going through is not a good situation I’ve never experienced anything like this with my two daughters and as a parent, you would like to take the pain away you can’t obviously, you can only do so much.”

He cautioned: “We are all caught up with the COVID-19 situation and we are in living Barbados and we are really one here … and I don’t think in my mind Bajans are taking it [dengue] that serious or the authorities should make it known that we do have a dengue problem in Barbados.”

“Whatever could be done from a health perspective at our homes, please I am begging you to do what you can do, today is Skai tomorrow it could be you.”

Last week, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George confirmed that Barbados had recently recorded two dengue-related deaths, including an eight-year-old child with pre-existing conditions.

Dr George said while dengue fever remains a concern, there has been“no rise beyond the threshold level” for the month of December.

He urged residents to play a role in helping to stop the outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease and gave the assurance that dengue surveillance is being given “special attention” by health officials.

“We need the cooperation of the public of Barbados and it is very important that persons in their households take the advice from public health officials and do the right thing. This is not a ‘we against them’. This is a community-type approach that will help us,” said George.
(kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb)