Student Dies...after double-heart surgery

No. 64 Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Family members, friends, schoolmates and residents mourn the passing of 15 year-old Shan toy Lawrence who died last Saturday in the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) while recuperating after undergoing double-heart surgery.

    On Monday morning, the Western Mirror visited Cambridge in St. James-where a large crowd had gathered to. express their sorrow and offer condolences to the family of the deceased.
    Natalee Henry-Lawrence, 33 year-old housewife and mother of the teenage student who attended Cambridge High, in an interview related. how the family watched as she passed away. The machine kept beeping lower and lower indicating that they were losing her. According to the mother, she died peacefully.
    During last year, the family made an all-out plea to the public for assistance to pay the over $500,000 needed for the surgery. Her mother said that Shantoy had been affected by the heart disorder since birth and over the years, the symptoms of her illness became very clear. It was subsequently learnt that her daughter was suffering from a rear heart disease described as Tetralogy of Fallot. .
    She grew weaker every day so much so that her father had to visit the school on a daily basis in order to carry her on his shoulders from one classroom to the next.
    Winout Entertainment boss and dancehall artiste Rickey Teetz, out of Montego Bay, was among the first to donate a cheque to the family and this move was welcomed with open arms but they were still left short.
    It was then that it appeared that there would be divine intervention when a telephone call to the family revealed that the University Hospital was contacted by a sponsor­who would be putting up the remaining $497,000 needed to do the surgery. They thought the worse was over and the heart transplant was a total success until it was discovered by the head surgeon Dr. Roger Irvine that the VSD patch, used during the operation was infected and started to lift out of place.
    The student was immediately rushed back into surgery to correct the problem, which seemed to be a total success for the second time around until last Friday when it was discovered that the right side of her heart was not functioning and this causing too much pressure on her other organs, which totally gave way Saturday morning.
    The student, who recently celebrated her 15th birthday, died peacefully.