Claudette Grant seeks $1.5m for emergency ovarian cyst surgery

Claudette Grant says the hardships she has endured — years of illness, setbacks and near-death moments — could fill a memoir. Writing that book, however, is not her priority. She is focused on emergency surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst that she says is causing unbearable pain.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Sunday, Grant put the price of the operation at more than $1.5 million. She released her cellphone number, 876-589-1468, for anyone willing to help, and said she can supply donors with whatever details they need.

Though she sees herself as resilient, Grant admitted that her growing list of troubles sometimes leaves her depressed. She lacks the money to cover the procedure herself and is asking the public to help her reach the $1.5-million goal.

“The doctor said the surgery will cost the amount I told you, and I don’t have any money. Remember that I have Hannahlisa battling with,” she said, referring to her young daughter.

Hannahlisa Hall has had multiple strokes, Grant said, which have badly affected her schooling and broader development at a key stage of childhood. Caring for Hall has been expensive, and Grant said she has been unable to keep a regular job because she must look after her daughter constantly. Grant also has two sons older than Hall; neither can contribute financially to their mother or sister right now.

“These things make me worry because I have been fighting for my daughter for years and now I am going through this. It is rough. I am appealing for help so that I can do the surgery and related procedures. Sometimes I feel like something is chopping out my belly bottom. I am feeling a lot of pain because of this thing.

“I feel bad so often. On Saturday I felt like I was going to faint; I had to just remain in bed. I have fibroids as well but the doctor said the cyst is the major problem. Maybe they will have to remove the entire womb. I don’t plan to have anymore children. I just want to feel better,” Grant told the Observer.

Her difficulties did not begin with the cyst. In 2004, while pregnant with her second son, she was shot. She recalled waiting for a meal at a cookshop when a gunman opened fire, and said she has survived many crises since.

“The 16th of this month will make it 22 years exactly. I was at a set-up and walked around the road to go and buy a food. While I was waiting on the food I heard a man say ‘Watch it.’ Other men were sitting top side where the food was being sold. Most likely, one among them was the intended target.

“As the only woman there, I was the one who was shot — and I was shot twice. The first one lodged in my buttocks, the second was in my leg. I didn’t even know I was shot, I didn’t even know how I reached on the ground with my eight months belly. That bullet is still inside me.

“I have been through a lot and I am still here fighting on. My story is a book that can be written,” she said. She noted that a different wound path could have killed her and her unborn child. She delivered a healthy boy in August 2004.

On her daughter’s condition, Grant has earlier said she thanks God for sustaining the family through the ordeal. Hall was diagnosed with full-blown sickle cell disease soon after birth, according to Grant. In 2017 she had the first of four strokes. Before then she was in hospital often — sometimes two or three times a month. Grant said Hall had suffered all four strokes by age nine.

“She has made it to this point but she is still suffering from seizures. The seizures [affect] her very regularly,” Grant explained. “The doctor gives her seizure medication but, to me, it is not really helping. The most important part of the situation is that I still give thanks for life for her. There are many situations out there, and by the time you look, an individual is gone. On June 16 she will be 15 years old and she still has life, so I just continue to pray and trust God.”

Grant said Hall has been in and out of hospital from a young age. Each admission brings a bill she cannot pay, deepening her hardship.

“In December, she was admitted at the University Hospital of the West Indies for about three weeks and the bill was $326,000 and all now it don’t pay. They call me every time about it. She went to school one Friday morning and came back home with a fever and a cold. I took her to the hospital and they said she had shortness of breath and admitted her because of her history with sickle cell and seizures,” Grant said.