JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Funds needed for boy's surgery
by: Miami Herald
Posted on Sun, Feb. 04, 2007
A local organization is raising money to pay for surgery for a Trinidadian boy with a life-threatening blood circulation condition.
Miami Herald Staff Report
Bruce Balroop has lived all of his 13 years life in fear of bleeding to death. He has come to Miami in hopes of getting treatment.
The Trinidadian boy was diagnosed in 1999 with portal vein thrombosis, a rare condition in which a blood clot affects the portal vein that routs blood from the gastrointestinal tract into the liver.
The condition has caused Bruce to suffer from portal hypertension or high blood pressure in the portal vein, which forces blood down alternate channels by the increased resistance to flow through the portal system.
The increased pressure in the portal vein has developed very fragile large varices that can bleed easily.
Bruce takes medication daily to ease the pressure of the blood flow; his spleen is enlarged, keeping him from living a normal life like other teenagers his age.
''We live in constant fear of him getting some type of virus. We are frightened all the time, afraid that these varices will become larger and cause him to bleed,'' said his mother, Laura Balroop.
The condition can be life threatening, and, if not treated soon, the boy runs the risk of bleeding to death.
''This is an operation that needs to be done immediately; gastrointestinal bleeding can happen at any time. If massive hemorrhaging occurs, he can die,'' said Dr. Gennaro Selvaggi, assistant professor of Clinical Surgery in the Division of Liver and GI Transplant at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
Selvaggi is a member of the medical team that will operate on Bruce.
The boy has faced medical challenges since birth, when he developed pneumonia and was placed on a respirator for three weeks before he could breathe on his own. A year later, doctors discovered he had an enlarged spleen. Further signs of his condition began to appear in 1999, when he bled through the mouth, leading to further testing and eventually the PVT diagnosis.
The gastroenterologist that originally diagnosed Bruce realized that the family did not have the money to pay for his operation; his mother is a housewife and his father a taxi-driver in Trinidad-and-Tobago. The doctor contacted the International Kids Fund to try to arrange for the operation, which is not available on the island.
Also, the Hispanic Women of Trinidad, an IKF partner organization, took up Bruce's cause.
The $48,000 bypass surgery he needs will create a connection or shunt between the portal vein and the inferior vena cava, causing blood flow to bypass the liver and thus reduce the pressure in the portal vein.
Because Bruce is not a U.S. resident, Jackson Memorial is not permitted to use taxpayer money to pay for his treatment. The surgery will be done at charitable rates for the IFK, a program of the Jackson Memorial Foundation that provides care to needy children from around the world who suffer from serious illnesses that cannot be treated in their home countries.
''On behalf of Bruce's family and the International Kids Fund, we ask the community to find it in their hearts to give a young man the opportunity to live his life to the fullest. If Bruce receives this operation, he will be able to live a completely normal life,'' IFK director Marķa Luisa Chea said.
The IFK launched a fundraising campaign for Bruce on Wednesday during a news conference at UM/JMC. Those present included the boy, his mother and his father Himraj Balroop, Selvaggi, Dr. Erick Hernandez and Chea.
''He just wants to be normal, play soccer and kick the ball around with his friends but, with an enlarged spleen, he cannot participate in any contact sports without running the risk of bleeding,'' said Himraj Balroop. ``An operation is the only way for him to get better, be totally normal.''
