“I am living a second life,” said 27-year-old Ray Mohammed, after facing a life-threatening ordeal less than a year ago.
Mohammed, a former Naparima Boys’ College student, lived a normal life. He had a passion for sport and having a good time with friends. He grew up in Tarouba, San Fernando. he excelled in accounting and is furthering his studies.
But his life changed drastically after what he thought was just recurring headaches turned out to be far more severe. He was shocked when told that without brain surgery he would not survive.
Mohammed explained what he endured. “It started for about a month, I started to get headaches. I took the normal headache medications. They worked but the headaches never left. I thought it was migraines so I never took it serious until the pain became consistent and started to affect my daily functions.”
Mohammed then decided to go see a doctor.
“When I first saw the doctor, they took the blood test and told me I have more white blood cells than red and this was a sign of an infection. They gave a course of antibiotics and that was it.
“It worked,” he said. “The pain was gone. Finally!”
Optimistic that things were back to normal, Mohammed went to work. He attended school for about two weeks. But the pain returned, this time more viciously and intensely.
“The pain was crippling. It was pain that I never felt before. I started to get a very high fever. I was confused. I called my girlfriend to sleep over with me at nights to monitor me. I was afraid it was something grave.”
One night, Mohammed was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where a series of tests were done and he was admitted to the Ward immediately. He thought his stay at the hospital would have been a short one.
“All my tests came back normal but the headaches were still there,” he said.
The doctors suggested a CT scan and an MRI to dig deeper for the source of the headaches.
“At this time, the pain became so intense I was getting delusional and had to be restrained. They knew it was an infection but could not identify where.”
On Carnival weekend in 2014, Mohammed’s mother Joy had to stay with him because the pain was affecting his reasoning.
“Ray fought back while we were getting the MRI done. He believed he was going to be killed by someone,” his mother said. “I was scared for my son because I never saw him in such severe pain.”
The MRI showed a large cerebral abscess in the front right of his brain that was filled with inflammation as well as an infection in his sinus passage.
Doctors told the Mohammed family the only way their son could survive was to have emergency brain surgery. They explained that the procedure could have some life-changing effects. The hardest pill to swallow, however, was that there was a 50/50 chance of survival with the procedure.
“I was in shock,” said Mohammed’s mother. “It was only a day Ray was in the hospital and I am being told about emergency brain surgery. What was also more scary was knowing that the chances of him coming out of this surgery were very slim.”
Most of Mohammed’s family and friends gathered at the hospital to hear his prognosis. The doctors warned that Mohammed could become blind, deaf or paralysed or even end up as a vegetable. At worst, Mohammed could die during the surgery.
Drs Alvarez and Ramsamooj led the surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital and in the waiting room, members of Mohammed’s church started a chain of prayer for the success of the operation.
By the time doctors operated on Mohammed, infection started to go through his body, causing septic shock which affected the many of his organs.
At the end of the six hour surgery, doctors told Mohammed when they entered his brain, the abscess had burst and inflammation had to syringed out of his head.
“They told me that if the abscess burst before the surgery I would have been dead.”
Doctors retrieved close to 250 ml of inflammation from Mohammed’s brain. It was enough to fill a small soft drink bottle.
Mohammed was put in a coma in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
“They thought that I would have stayed in the coma but I woke up before time,” he said. “When I awoke I was confused. I did not realised the surgery was done or even knew why I was in a bed with all these machines hooked up on me.”
Doctors where amazed with Mohammed’s strength just a few days after surgery, as he awoke out of the coma for a second time.
“The second time I awoke I was more aware of my surroundings and I had no feelings on left side of my body, this was a side effect of having brain surgery done.” he said.
It was not over, as his sinus passage was filled with inflammation and another procedure had to be done to clear it.
Doctors gave Mohammed a year to recover but this was not so.
“After just a few days I woke up, there was pain but not like before. My left side still had no feelings and I had a slight loss in memory which was normal after such a procedure was done”, he said. “It was a 50/50 chance that I would be alive, but had it not been for God I will not be here today.
“Every step I take on a daily basis, I thank God, because the things they told me I would not been able to do I can do,” Mohammed said, “I can play sport now be able to go to work and also continue his studies.
“To return to school was a task, as the surgery affected my concentration skills but that too I overcame,” he said.
Now Mohammed said since the surgery he has gotten closer to God and he believes this was the way for him to accept the word of God.
Since the surgery, which was less than a year ago, his life has returned to normal, and he said the surgery “has humbled him.”
Mohammed is now active within his church, Revival Time Assembly, where he has now devoted his life to God.
“I think God has given me a second chance so I owe it to him,” Mohammed said. “Now I will share my testimony to everyone out there.”
He wants to motivate many youths, not take life for granted as he realises that simplest things can affect your life drastically.
“With the headaches, the things I could not have done, I can now. It’s like a new lease on life and I can say I had a brush with death.”
Mohammed is extremely thankful for the care he received at the San Fernando General Hospital and he now has renewed faith in the public health system.
