As Nadine Powell watches her 12-year-old son, Dane O’Connor, recover from heart surgery in Boston, she also undoubtedly wrestles with the knowledge that Hurricane Dean destroyed her home in Jamaica over the weekend.
Powell and O’Connor, 12, came to Westwood from Jamaica earlier this month so doctors could replace a valve in the boy’s heart.
The boy spent more than four hours in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children on Monday. He remains in the intensive care unit of the hospital recuperating from what was, by all accounts, a successful surgery.
‘‘Dr. Jeff Myers spoke to us extensively (on Monday). He was pleased with the surgery. It was difficult but successful,’’ said Barry Friedman, president of Gift of Life New England, the nonprofit organization that brought O’Connor to Massachusetts.
Yet for the success of the surgery, Powell and O’Conner will return to a Jamaica without a home. Hurricane Dean tore through Jamaica earlier this week, reportedly destroying Powell’s house in the town of Mandeville.
Before the surgery, the mother and son stayed with the family of Chuck and Kerri Bean on Clapboardtree Street, and on Monday night Powell’s relatives called and gave Chuck Bean news of the hurricane.
‘‘He dropped the phone, and said they lost their home,’’ Kerri Bean said yesterday. ‘‘It was emotional (Monday). During surgery it was very emotional. It all hit her (Powell), what was being done to him, the scariness of the unknown.’’
Powell and O’Connor could not be reached at the hospital yesterday.
Powell has a daughter and two sons still in Jamaica and relatives in New York and Jamaica. Kerri Bean said the children were staying in Jamaica with Powell’s mother, whose home did not sustain as much damage.
Before the mother and son can return to Jamaica, however, O’Connor needs to recover from the surgery. He’ll stay in the hospital for several more days, then go back to the Beans’ to further recuperate.
O’Connor spoke with the Daily News Transcript last week. Tall and quiet, he visited the United States at age 2 to undergo heart surgery in New Jersey. Over the ensuing decade, Bean’s heart grew weaker, causing him him to tire easily and producing swelling from poor circulation. He needed another operation.
O’Connor’s doctor in Jamaica recommended that Powell contact Gift of Life, a Rotary International organization that pays for heart surgery for children around the world who could otherwise not afford the medical costs.
