A desperate plea for medical assistance for our mother (63) who is now unable to walk, who lives in constant pain and whose quality of life is non-existent.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, hard lockdowns and subsequent retrenchments, our parents were forced to live off their life savings. Further complicating the situation was the fact that Samantha was expecting twins due to be born in Cape Town as the hard lockdown was implemented. Knowing that Samantha had very little necessities and support for the newborn twins, our parents gave up everything to go be there for her. They loaded their vehicle with as many necessities as they could and managed to drive across the country and reach Cape Town only a week after the twins were born.
After Samantha was also retrenched when the twins were 3 months old, our parents once again gave up everything, relocated to the Cape and took Samantha and the twins in to help them survive. Eventually, after almost 2 years, Samantha found work in Gauteng, I was expecting my first child and our parents, Samantha and the twins relocated back to Gauteng so that we could finally all be together once again.
Our mother’s spinal problems go years back, including two surgeries done over 10 years ago. Three years ago the pain started again and eventually our mother was forced to go to Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital for treatment, which has not been successful due to misdiagnosis and being transferred from hospital to hospital with no resolve or end in sight, all the while suffering with extreme pain and the inability to walk, as well as losing the feeling in her hands and feet.
Initially, the diagnosis was that she needed spinal surgery, but the Health Department has years of incalculable backlogs so the visits to the hospital were resulting in absolutely zero progress. Since our parents are retired and cannot afford private care, in desperation we started a fundraiser in the hopes of getting a private diagnosis with a Neurosurgeon, with the hopes of covering whatever treatment she may need with the funds raised.
After a physical examination, viewing the MRI Scan and reading the report, the Neurosurgeon was not convinced of the initial diagnosis, he chose to send her for further x-rays and finally, we had a reliable diagnosis – she needs a full left hip replacement, not spinal surgery. Although we considered this great progress, our hopes were once again destroyed when we came to learn that State Hospitals have a 3 to 5-year waiting period for hip replacement surgery.
It has been medically confirmed that she cannot wait that long and since it’s considered major surgery which is out of our financial means, we are forced once again to run a fundraiser in the hopes of raising enough to cover the cost of the surgery at a private facility since we cannot wait for Government.
Our once active, vibrant mother has suffered greatly – bedridden and in extreme chronic pain. Our prayers are for your generosity to enable her to resume her life pain-free and mobile once again. That her grandchildren can get to know their happy active granny, that they can enjoy her taking them for walks in nature, some of the little things in life that she is now denied.
