Despair fuels hope

A Jamaican family is spearheading a campaign to purchase a vital diagnostic machine after their 79-year-old matriarch, Cinderella Williams, succumbed to an aggressive form of blood cancer. The family's determination to prevent future tragedies has led them to launch a GoFundMe to raise US$200,000 for a Flow Cytometre machine.

Their discovery that the island's sole Flow Cytometre machine, essential for confirming the disease and guiding treatment, had been non-operational for two years, fueled their resolve. This critical diagnostic tool, housed at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) under the Department of Pathology, is used to identify blood disorders like leukemia and lymphoma, determine their stage, and predict their aggressiveness.

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I can’t say the presence of the machine would have saved her because Mom was pretty sick before she got to the hospital. She was still walking around strong but she wasn’t feeling well, so she went to her doctor who told her it was dehydration and prescribed rehydration salts.

Williams was hospitalized after experiencing symptoms initially dismissed as dehydration. However, her condition rapidly deteriorated, revealing an abnormal white blood cell count and elevated calcium levels, indicative of a very aggressive blood cancer. The next crucial step, a flow cytometry test to confirm the diagnosis and inform treatment, was unavailable.

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When he got her to the hospital she was talking and coherent but disoriented in terms of where she was and the time. Checks revealed she was very sick. I didn’t understand the full magnitude.

Currently, blood samples requiring flow cytometry must be shipped to Florida for testing. Due to limited shipment days, patients face significant delays in receiving diagnoses and commencing treatment. This lack of local diagnostic capability meant Williams, and potentially many others, were denied timely and accurate medical assessments.

The family, including son Dale James and sibling Valerie Campbell-Elliott, hopes that by acquiring the machine, they can save lives in their mother's memory and improve the healthcare infrastructure in Jamaica, ensuring that other families do not endure similar devastating delays.

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They said all of this pointed to a very aggressive form of blood cancer. She was hospitalised the Wednesday, by Thursday morning they were telling us all of this. I got to Jamaica Friday morning. The next step would have been to do a flow cytometry test to confirm the diagnosis to determine how you treat.