Mickel living his dreams

When he was just days old Mickel Williams was diagnosed with hydrocephalus - a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) builds up within the fluid-containing cavities or ventricles of the brain. But his mother Stacyann Crystal Bissessar has not allowed it to prevent him from achieving his dreams.

The mother of two, from Tacarigua, said even though he is a special needs child, he has successfully written the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam, has been swimming from the age of four with the Eastern School of Life Saving and is trying to get a lifeguard certificate, has made the Special Olympics team, beats the African and Congo drums for the Republic Bank Exodus steelband, and plays in the police band at Eternal Light.

“I don’t believe in cooping-up. I want him to feel normal,” Bissessar said.

Williams was born August 8, 2005, at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope. He was premature, having been delivered at seven and a half months. Bissessar recalled being told by doctors that Williams needed to gain weight before being discharged. While waiting for him to gain the required amount of weight they noticed his head was swelling. “The doctors did a spinal tap and realised he had hydrocephalus,” she said.

He was sent to the neurosurgery clinic and his stay at the hospital extended to another three weeks to await surgery. “They put in something called a shunt (to relieve pressure from hydrocephalus).” Bissessar was told after the surgery Williams would have a normal brain like a normal child.

After surgery, he spent more than four months in the hospital and was discharged around Christmas time. He joined the hospital’s clinics for patients with hydrocephalus. When he turned five, Bissessar said he began to get frequent “unbearable” headaches and she realised something was wrong. She recalled the doctors had told her if he had headaches or seizures to bring him back to the hospital.

When she took him to the EWMSC, she was told there was no neurosurgeon assigned to the hospital at the time, and the doctor who had attended to Williams, Dr Richard Spann, now worked at the Community Hospital of Seventh Day Adventists, in Cocorite.

Hospital officials contacted Spann and Bissessar was advised to take her son to the Cocorite hospital to be attended by Spann. The EWMSC, she was told, would fund his treatment there.

All went well until Williams was 11 and began having seizures. At the time Bissessar was unable to get him to Cocorite so she went to Mt Hope instead. He stayed there for six days. Bissessar said she contacted Spann who advised her to keep him there so “if an emergency happens they would help.”

A series of tests were done and he was discharged, but Bissessar was not satisfied and decided to take him to see Spann. He wrote her a referral letter and she took it back to the EWMSC. He (Spann) asked for further tests to be done and the results sent to him. The X-ray showed that fluid was moving from his brain to his neck and Bissessar decided to pay for her son’s care at the community hospital. Spann performed surgery to remove the fluid from Williams’ brain.

Now 14, Williams is now on his third shunt and visits Spann every three months at the community hospital.

Bissessar said has always been focused on giving Williams a “normal” upbringing.

“He attended a normal kindergarten. I just wanted to give him a normal experience. But when we sent him to primary school the teacher kept complaining.”

“I said ‘what am I going to do? I don’t have the money to pay for him to go to a special school.’”

At the time, she was working in a store and could not afford to send him to a school for special needs children. His uncles decided to pay his school fees at the Charis Works Christian Academy, Tacarigua until he wrote Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam. However, when he was in standard four Bissessar said a teacher called her and said, “Mummy I think Mickel wants to write this SEA but let us just send him to a trade school.”

“I told her no. His dream is to write the SEA and it doesn’t matter what you say…this is his dream. She then got him a private tutor, Arianne Sharma, who encouraged him. “I just want him to experience and be like everyone else,” she said.

Williams wrote the SEA in 2019 and was placed at Malick Secondary School, San Juan. Bissessar said she was proud that he was placed into a school but applied for a transfer because travelling would have been difficult for him. She could not get the transfer and enrolled him into a private school, Eternal Light Community Vocational School, Tacarigua.

While caring for a child with special needs is costly, Bissessar said she does not look at the costs. She is primarily concerned with Williams’ well-being. She lamented that not enough is done for children with special needs in TT.

Williams, she said, wants to be like his role model Spann one day and he also hopes to become a member of the Fire Service and get into its music band.