By Shane Marks
This is the season to be jolly. It is a time for laughter and love. This season is all about basking in the happiness of everything around us and there is perhaps no one happier than Annecia George and her husband Lakeram Bridgepaul.
For the quiet couple from the Cinderella County, their Christmas miracle came months early but ever since his arrival, he has been fighting. Three-month-old Javarious Annecia George is everything and more than his parents hoped for.
For them, he is their miracle boy.
Annecia and Lakeram hail from the quiet Essequibo Coast village of Good Hope and expanding their family is something they have wanted for quite some time now. However, this is not their first attempt at growing their numbers.
She lost her first child just last year and the pain was insufferable so when she got pregnant this time around, Annecia wanted to do everything to ensure that she carried her baby to term. She found out that they were expecting in April of this year and began to embrace the journey with absolute care. Her routine changed and she took on very light chores and left the heavy lifting to her support system – her husband and family.
Everything was going well until September 24. It was a shock and an all too familiar feeling when Annecia realised that she was going into labour.
“I was very much scared. A lot of things were going through my mind because I was studying if my child was going to survive. Is he going to be okay,” she told Guyana Times during a recent interview.
The 31-year-old mother knew that her time was not just yet and wanted to do everything and more to ensure that her precious baby boy remained tucked away in her belly until it was safe for him to make his entrance. But in true showman fashion, Javarious was charting his own path. His script was ready and he was about to enter centre stage.
At just six and a half months in the womb, Javarious’ chances of survival were slim and his parents knew that. Annecia was beyond worried and all of the pain from her previous experiences began crawling to the surface.
She could not have fought the course of nature and just decided to do what was best to give her son a fighting chance, because she knew he would have to fight dearly. Annecia went into the delivery room with one wish and one mission that intertwined with each other so perfectly that both had her son’s best interest in common. She was determined to give birth to her son and she continued to pray that he would be delivered safely.
That was all she wished for. It was her early Christmas wish.
The delivery process was smooth as the doctors and nurses at the Suddie Hospital waited to take care of their newest patient. He arrived into the world and was immediately rushed away from his mother.
There was no time to bond with him or to coddle him. From the moment his head came peering out, Javarious was battling every element to survive. He was placed in the incubator – his womb away from his mother’s womb – where he got all the care possible for him to survive.
Annecia was left on a hospital bed with two empty arms, longing to hold her newborn baby. She said that it was a tough experience – not being able to hold her child, having to watch the nurses carry him out of the room as soon as he came out of her womb. She wept every time she saw him locked away in his little glass bubble.
“It was hard,” she said as she recalled watching him take injection after injection.
It took a toll on her because her emotions were unstable. Less than a year prior she had suffered a traumatic incident and now she was watching her son battle with every breath he took. She could not have held him, fed him or even cleaned him. She was helpless.
After two months of constant battles and extreme care by his doctors and nurses, Javarious was ready to go home with his mother. She was overjoyed to have her son home with her.
Annecia stated that the transition from the hospital to home was smooth, adding that now she is out of the hospital, life is beautiful.
Javarious’ parents are grateful to God and the doctors and nurses at Suddie Hospital.
Lakeram is a construction worker and is quite often away from home but makes sure he checks in with his little family as often as possible.
For them, Javarious is everything and more they could have wished for this Christmas.
