Nigel’s hoping for a helping hand

BY MICHELLE COOKE

Nigel Ita’a falls between the gaps.

The 19-year-old needs urgent dental work on his teeth but because he is over 18 he cannot receive free dental care through his school, and his family can’t afford to pay for the treatment.

Barbara Stewart-Brown, Nigel’s learning support teacher at Tamaki College, was concerned about his teeth when he didn’t make it to school one day because he was in too much pain.

When the mobile dental clinic visited the school earlier this year she asked if they would take a look at his teeth and was shocked to learn that on just one quarter of his mouth he needed four molars removed, two root canals and false teeth.

She has made it her mission to find someone who can donate their time or help finance the work, but has so far been unsuccessful.

Ms Stewart-Brown is worried that his teeth won’t be fixed by the time Nigel returns to the Solomon Islands next year and the pain will come back, and could be much worse.

"I’m concerned that it is probably going to come again – I can’t see how it won’t," she says.

Nigel came to New Zealand with his family two years ago so his father Kenneth could train as a Christian minister.

The family will return home once Mr Ita’a has finished his training but there is only a small dental clinic where they live and it doesn’t have the equipment needed to fix Nigel’s teeth.

When he was three, Nigel had open heart surgery in Brisbane.

Mr Ita’a says the doctors did a full examination and said dental work was necessary, but it couldn’t be done at the time because of the stress from the operation.

Nigel’s parents thought his adult teeth would solve the problem. But they didn’t.

Mr Ita’a understands that because Nigel isn’t a New Zealand citizen he is not eligible for financial assistance through Work and Income.

"We appreciate that someone has come on board and said they will give a helping hand," he says of Ms Stewart-Brown’s assistance.

"This would be a great opportunity and we see it as a blessing."

- © Fairfax NZ News