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Belizean boy receives lifesaving gift in Tampa

A 10-year-old gets heart surgery through a program that helps needy children from foreign countries.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published October 15, 2005

	[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
	Neville Bermudez, 10, rests as his mother, Elizabeth Trapp, watches Friday in St. Joseph's Children's Hospital's Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

TAMPA - Neville Bermudez is always up to something. The sixth-grader loves playing basketball near his home in the inland village of Camelote, Belize, and his mom describes him as a hyper child who can't keep still.

But Sept. 21, it all changed.

Neville came down with a fever at home that morning and collapsed. When Elizabeth Trapp took her son to a doctor, an echocardiogram revealed Neville had a tear in the mitral valve of his heart.

Likely caused by bacteria damaging the valve, the tear was making his heart work too hard. He was so young - the condition, so acute - that the 10-year-old needed surgery to stay alive.

That kind of surgery wasn't offered in Belize.

"I was afraid I was going to lose him," his mother said in tears. "It's very hard, thinking my child could not get the help that he needed."

But Trapp had heard about other children in her country saved by surgery through Gift of Life, a Rotary International program that gets U.S. medical treatment for needy children from foreign countries.

Trapp supports Neville and his five siblings on her income as a school security guard. His dad, a mechanic, was recently laid off, and surgical bills would have been impossible to pay.

She and doctors contacted Gift of Life, and the organization set up Neville for surgery at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

The surgery was originally scheduled for Thursday, but the boy needed it sooner.

His lungs were beginning to fail, and he needed a ventilator to breathe. His heart was exhausted, and it required immediate repair. He couldn't wait another day.

Tuesday, he was rushed to Tampa on an air ambulance his community raised $33,000 to hire. Local newscasts had asked viewers for donations and raised the funds in just a few days.

Pediatric heart surgeon Paul Chai donated his services, and his team of doctors repaired the tear Wednesday.

It took them four hours to replace torn heart fibers with artificial ones, reconstructing the valve so that it wouldn't leak anymore.

"He looks great now," Chai said. "It's one of the times that helps validate your career."

Neville slept soundly in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph's, his mother stroking his long, braided hair while machines marked the beat of his heart.

When Neville arrived at the hospital, his heartbeat swished with regurgitated blood. Now, the steady drum has returned.

In two days, he'll be in a regular hospital room. In four or five, he'll be out of the hospital and recovering at the Ronald McDonald House, a home away from home for seriously ill children and their families. And in about two weeks, he's expected to go home to Belize.

"I want to say thanks to everyone here that helped my son," she said. "I know that without them, I wouldn't have a son today."

Chai said he just wishes more kids born in the "wrong place at the wrong time" with Neville's condition could get the help they needed.

"This is a problem that should be able to be fixed," he said.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or at azayas@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 15, 2005, 01:14:05]