Family Pleads to Help Save Jameer  

Tonight, a family is turning to the public to plead for assistance in saving twelve-year-old Jameer Lodge’s life. The standard five student was diagnosed with encephalitis, a brain inflammation that led to a rapid decline in his health, at the beginning of March. He has since been sent to Merida, where he is making a slow recovery, but the family has amassed a hospital bill of over ninety thousand dollars, and as his treatment is nowhere near its end, the bill is only growing. We spoke with a few of Jameer’s family members earlier today to hear how they are handling his treatment. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

It’s been just over two weeks since twelve-year-old Jameer Lodge was diagnosed with encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that leads to several symptoms such as fever, seizures, loss of consciousness, and loss of motor control. What started out as a headache for Jameer, resulted in complete loss of movement in his body and ultimately, hospitalization. Jameer’s aunt, Kimberly Garcia, explained that while progress is being made in his condition, it’s a slow process.

 

Kimberly Garcia, Aunt of Patient

“Jameer is twelve years old. He’s a student of Saint Joseph Primary School and he’s been seeking medical treatment in Merida for encephalitis. And COVID nineteen positive earlier. So that’s what he’s getting treated for right now with Jameer’s condition. He’s stable right now, but he has a long way to go. He’s not able to talk because he’s incubated, but we’ve been seeing slight movements from him. So, it’s a very slow process. It’s a very slow process and we expect to see more movements from him, a lot more treatments. We have a long way to go with his medical treatment and that is why we’re here to seek assistance for him.”

 

Garcia said that everything happened so suddenly, the family was not prepared for such a large hospital bill. A debt, that has only been growing.

 

Kimberly Garcia

“This happened all of a sudden, and everything has been moving so fast. In regards to funds, I mean we’re pulling together as a family. Our friends here and abroad have been helping us significantly. But like I said, it’s very expensive. The treatment and the one here was costly, but the one in Merida is what’s just the medication alone, It’s over forty thousand dollars.”

 

Jameer’s other aunt, Rosalie Lodge, explained that Jameer’s medication, which is vital for his recovery, is a primary contributor to the significance of the bill because the dosages are administered according to the patient’s weight. According to them, Jameer needs about twenty-eight bottles, which cost around two thousand dollars each.

 

Kimberly Garcia

“They’re mounting very rapidly. The medication alone for the inflammation on his brain is costing us almost forty-seven thousand. And that’s just for one medication. The doctor, he stands by that medication and we’re seeing the improvements because he left Belize unresponsive and he was unresponsive for over a week and it was just last week, Wednesday, after he started getting the medications Sunday evening, Wednesday, we started to see a little movement from him. He started twitching his eyes and stuff like that, but like we said the medication is very costly. Our bill, we’re over ninety thousand as of today because the hospital bill as well was over forty thousand and then medication is over forty thousand.”

 

According to his family, Jameer is a bright child and has hopes to go to Saint John’s College when he graduates and has a passion for cooking, music, and mechanical work.

 

Kimberly Garcia

“Jameer deserves a fighting chance. He’s a sweet humble, caring, helpful young man. He has a lot to accomplish in this world. We are fighting for him. He, in the evenings after school, he would go along with my brother, he does he likes to trade as well. His dad is an auto mechanic as well. In the evening, he goes after school, he helps my brother. He could change a spark plug on his own. He could do, assist with brake suspension, brake pads. All sorts of thing, he’s twelve years old, but he’s wise beyond his age, he walks around with his own little cookbook and he knows how to make flour tortilla, johnny cake, waffles, sometimes he gets up in the morning, he surprises parents with breakfast, he’s very ambitious and business minded at a young age, so we know that our nephew, he could do wonders in this world.”

 

They said that they have reached out to as many avenues as they could for support, including businesses such as Santiago Castillo Limited and Grace Kennedy, which will both be donating a basket to raffle. And while they have received tremendous assistance, they are imploring the public to further aid them in their cause. Garcia said that this process has been hard on Jameer’s parents, Leila Gracia and Joel Lodge, but the family and community have been a great support to them and their son.

 

Kimberly Garcia

“So we’re trying our very best and we’re just appealing to the public to help in whatever way. He’s the only child for his parents. They do everything together. They sit at night, they eat together. Phones are barred from the table so they could have their quality time together with each other. They go to church. So, we could just imagine how. they feel and what they’re going through as well. Our family, the larger Garcia family were very close. We’re very close family. And that is what is getting us through this. The strong family support. We come together both families and we’re doing what It is, we could do, whatever possible because our nephew deserves a fighting chance. And so, we’re just asking the public, if they could give whatever smile, it doesn’t matter. Every, every cent comes at this point in time, and like I said, people have been helping and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. It’s very. It’s amazing the amount of people that has reached out to us, Belize have some wonderful people. I’m telling you, it’s love. Belize is love.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.