Ailing St James man needs help for eye surgery
INFECTED WITH the HIV virus, which has caused damage to his eyes and has affected his heart and kidneys, 56-year-old Montego Bay, St James resident Orville ‘Blacka’ Cameron is facing an uncertain future and desperately needs help as he seeks to adjust to his situation. Cameron, who resides in a deplorable one-bedroom rented house in Water Lane, Montego Bay, is desperately seeking help to raise $500,000 to do a vitrectomy on his eyes, which he hopes will reverse his blindness.
Speaking with The Gleaner, Cameron said the various setbacks he has had in trying to do surgery on his eyes have caused him to have a mental breakdown, even pushing him to the point of attempting suicide.
“Mi just caah see, can’t go work or anywhere,” lamented Cameron. “Every day I get up, is from mi yard to out the lane, where you see me siddung under the tree; it just gives me a mental breakdown. Right now, they have me on the psycho ward at Cornwall Regional [Hospital] because last month I swallowed nearly three bottles [of ] a tablet they gave me. I just give up on life, mi feel like me nuh wah live no more.”
According to Cameron, due to the HIV virus, the problems in his eyes started in 2019, when his right eye developed glaucoma and his left eye developed cataracts. With an ophthalmologist recommending that he should do surgery on his eye at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Cameron, who had lost his job as a server at events, could not afford the $300,000, which was the cost at the time, as he was surviving primarily on the assistance he was getting from the Poor Relief Department in St James.
In 2020 he was scheduled for surgery, but because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it never happened. Last year, his eyes became worse as, while he was previously able to glimpse, he became fully blind.
“On August 23, when I was on the ward, the doctors did tests on the eyes to prepare for the surgery. On Thursday, the hospital sent me home. When I asked why, the doctor told me that the price for the surgery rose to $500,000,” said the frustrated Cameron.
“This really stress me out. First the COVID-19 pandemic, then they told me I had to get the vaccine, which I did, and now the price has gone up,” said Cameron.
Because of his blindness, Cameron has fallen down the staircase leading into his house many times. It has also made it difficult for him to prepare even the simplest meal for himself.
“[The] other day someone bring some oats come give me; while me a mix it, is cornmeal me throw in it, thinking is sugar. I cry almost every night, because the situation I am in is difficult,” stated Cameron, who regularly turns to his neighbours for assistance.
An ophthalmologist told The Gleaner that a vitrectomy, which is the treatment Cameron needs, is done with a machine that flattens the eyes if there is fluid at the back of the eye. If there is fluid underneath the retina, they use gas or silicone oil to put the retina back in place.