Solla de Villa got Haitian activist George Williams involved and even called the consul general of Saint Lucia in Miami, Kent Hippolyte. He offered to find housing for Maitre and her son when Miami Children's told the family they had to vacate the hospital-owned apartments they had been staying in for about a year. Solla de Villa told hospital social worker Mercedes Castro to put it in writing. Although Castro did not, Solla de Villa managed to extend the family's stay at the apartments for a few more weeks. To the hospital's relief, Maitre and her son moved to Naples.
Maitre and Jamie are now living on the Gulf Coast with family. Jamie isn't seeing a doctor, and he's not enrolled in school, though Maitre says that thanks to Brenda Owusu, he will likely begin in January at a school that offers physical therapy.
photo courtesy George Williams
Jamie's new friends gathered to celebrate his sixth birthday in September
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Though long-term care may have been out of the question at Miami Children's Hospital, perhaps better-informed hospital social workers could have linked Jamie and his mother to whatever services they were eligible for. But they didn't. After Jamie lost all mobility, Maitre says she received no information on how to access immigrant services, indigent medical care, or even public schooling for her son. (Under federal law all children are entitled to a public education, no matter what their legal status or disability.)
Oncologists did not refer Jamie for rehabilitation services such as physical and speech therapy because, according to them, such treatment would not improve his condition. Though they were not required to do so, perhaps doctors or social workers at Miami Children's could have referred Jamie to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where, if the family proved they had established residency in Miami-Dade County, he could have qualified for indigent care. At the very least, Maitre argues, her son's quality of life would have improved.
On a breezy September afternoon, Maitre exercised her son's inert body as he lay on the carpeted floor of the bedroom he shared with his mother at the Apartments on Devonshire in Miami. "Jamie was always out in the sun," she says smiling as she massages his legs. "He was always doing crazy little-boy stuff. But right now we're just dependent on God to make a miracle in his little life. He's always asking, “When will I walk?' He has lots of questions that I cannot provide answers to."
Maitre has doubts as well, doubts that no one has been able to allay. Perhaps no one ever will.
