While the family of Miss Universe Jamaica 2011 Shakira Martin, who died on Tuesday, has set up a campaign aimed at raising the equivalent of $2.5 million Jamaican Dollars to, among other things, pay for her funeral expenses, her mother Andrea Hall, revealed her last encounter with her daughter.
Martin, who lived in South Florida, died at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines from complications of sickle cell anaemia at the age of 30.
"In the morning when I saw her, I didn't feel comfortable because they said they were worried about her heart. I went to visit her on my way to work and I gave her a kiss and I gave her some ginger ale, and I never heard from her for the rest of the day," Hall said.
She said that her daughter was not her usual bubbly self that morning and she even said to her, "Can you imagine that they think I may have had a mild heart-attack." Hall said that after those words Martin shook her head.
Last encounter
"I was logging out to leave work early because I didn't like the fact that I didn't hear from her, and then when I logged out, the nurse called me to say that she was unstable and that I need to come now," Hall said.
She said that later that evening, about 6, she got a call from a doctor to say her daughter's health had taken a turn for the worse. It was at that point that Martin was taken to the ICU, where she later died. "She went off peacefully. There was no disconnecting of anything because I was not going to have her resuscitated," the mother said.
"She has practically been admitted every month for the past year," Hall said.
Martin, who was dedicated to spreading awareness about sickle cell, spent much of the last few weeks relying on an oxygen tank to breathe. However, despite being ill, she visited Jamaica recently and was in the island up to Monday. "When she came back she went straight to the emergency room," Hall said.
"She just wouldn't let anything stop her. I was like, 'Shakira, you can't go without the oxygen' and she would be like, 'I am going'. She was just singing and having a good time," Hall said of the days leading to her daughter's death.
Hall also said that her daughter was in Dubai in February, and within a month, she needed to have a medical port installed.
"It was after the port - when she took a long drive and a flight back - that the clot happened. The sickle cell itself is one thing, but the complications. What ended up happening is that she ended up having blood clots to one lung - three of them - and then they put her on blood thinners but they didn't work," her mother said.
"A month later, they ended up in the next lung, so they put her on something stronger," Hall added.
She recalled that her daughter ended a marketing campaign on May 29, one day before her 30th birthday. It was then that Hall said "she just gave up and decided to take a break".
"She was in the hospital in Virginia for one week," Hall said.
On Martin's return to Florida, instead of heading home, where a surprise party was being planned, she had to go straight to the hospital, and, remained there for about five weeks.
Hall said her daughter complained of pain in her bone, in her legs. At that time, she was on oxygen and blood thinners.
"When she came back from Jamaica, it was not about the clots. It was about the pain in her legs from sickle cell," Hall said.
Source: Jamaican Weekend Star
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