Theodore Grizzle needs urgent help to do bone marrow surgery in US
Published:Saturday | August 16, 2025 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Thirty-year-old Theodore Grizzle of Falmouth, Trelawny, is in need of urgent help. He needs to have bone marrow transplant surgery done in the United States by the end of September and is relying on public support.
Grizzle’s surgery is deemed urgent because he is suffers from aplastic anaemia, a rare blood disorder that results in the body not producing adequate red or white blood cells and platelets for normal bodily function. The disease reduces his ability to resist infections, meaning that even the common cold could potentially be fatal to him.
“I come from a praying family, so I am learning to put God first and trust in Him, and I know I am going to overcome this,” Grizzle told The Gleaner. “Even when I came here to the hospital, I told my doctor, ‘Doctor, you’re going to see something you have never seen before.’ I am just praying that everything goes the way it should,”
Grizzle’s ordeal began in June this year, when he started to experience bouts of unexplained tiredness while working at the Half Moon hotel in St James. He went to the Falmouth Public Hospital for treatment first, following which he was transferred to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in St James, where he is currently an inpatient.
“I work at the laundry room at the Half Moon hotel, and when delivering linen, I had to stop and catch my breath a little more often, and my legs felt tired,” explained Grizzle. “Due to the fact that it was coming close to my vacation time, and I was working the whole year, it would be human to feel a bit run-down at that time. But when I saw that I was catching my breath, I said, ‘Let me go check it out’, because that is not normal for me.
“I was at the Falmouth Hospital first, and they had me under observation to find out what exactly was the problem. They ran several blood tests and my blood tests were okay, and they checked my organs and those were okay. So when they could not come up with a diagnosis, they sent me off to the CRH to do a bone marrow test,” continued Grizzle. “I have received two transfusions of platelets already, but I cannot be living like that because the body needs to do what it needs to do, so they recommended me to get further medical help overseas.”
Consultant haematologist Dr Harvey Crawford says most aplastic anaemia patients, like Grizzle, must visit the Maryland-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States to get the necessary advanced treatment for the ailment, because the medical procedures that are needed are not available in Jamaica.
“Most of the patients who are diagnosed with aplastic anaemia have to be treated overseas. Our patients in the public sector, they are willingly accepted by the NIH in Maryland for subsequent treatments. So for the majority of our patients, that is where we send them,” said Crawford. “The drugs are available here, but sometimes the blood product support that the patient might need may not be available here for us. They do not have that problem over there, so that is why we make that effort for such cases to go overseas.”
GoFundMe account
The biggest hurdle that Grizzle faces in getting his treatment is the prohibitive cost, which will be more than US$26,000 (J$4.1 million), money his family does not have. A GoFundMe account has been created to help him and his family secure the necessary funds, but his first treatment must begin no later than September.
“The good thing is that the NIH institution is willing to do the process for free, but I would have to find living expenses, travel expenses, and food expenses, and I researched a couple of apartments in that area, and it is no joke. The cheapest apartment is between US$2,500 and US$2,600 a month, and the process will be lasting about six months, depending on how the treatments work,” said Grizzle.
“I got the first date of acceptance [to start treatment] for August 26, but they said that if I have not met the criteria as yet, they can push back the date to September. I am trying to get everything done before August 26, and if I do get a pushback time, it cannot be any later than the end of September,” Grizzle added.
Persons who wish to assist Theodore Grizzle may visit his GoFundMe page at https://gofund.me/4fe9c06b, or contact him at 876-250-3573.