Lee-Chaan’s Journey: A Mother’s Love and the Path to Healing

“It was a Tuesday night and there was no power, so we made a fire outside to boil water. Lee-Chaan was sitting next to me on a plastic chair. I left her with her dad and went to get more water. When I got back, Lee-Chaan tried to get up and her chair tipped over.” These are the words of Shahida, two-year-old Lee-Chaan’s mother.

Shahida speaks faster and her pitch rises as she recounts what happened that night in August 2024. “As she fell, Lee-Chaan grabbed the grill with one hand and stuck the other hand into the pot of boiling water, knocking it over. The boiling water went all over her body.

“Lee-Chaan immediately went limp, and I didn’t know what to do. The only thing that came to my head was to grab her and put her into the cold water, so I did. The doctors say I saved her life. But at the time, she went so cold that I didn’t know if she was going to make it.”

Shahida immediately rushed Lee-Chaan to the Mitchells Plain Hospital and they transferred her to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. She was in ICU for three weeks before being moved to the burns ward where she was treated for another two months. Shahida never left her side.

“My heart was breaking. I asked God what I should do, and he showed me, took my hand, and walked the path with me. Look where my child is now!” Lee-Chaan had thrown her ball across the room and was protesting that Shahida wasn’t retrieving it quickly enough. “She is playing. She does everything.”

During their grueling hospital stay, Shahida and Lee-Chaan received clothing and toiletries from the Children’s Hospital Trust Family Care programme. Shahida and Lee-Chaan depend on the R530 child support grant for food, clothing and transport. Transport for a single visit to the hospital costs over R100. Since discharge, the Family Care programme contributes towards the travel expenses for Lee-Chaan’s occupational therapy sessions, where she is trying to regain full use of her hands.

The Family Care Programme plays a vital role in ensuring that families have what they need to support their children on their paths to recovery and, in some small way, lightens their burdens during their most difficult times.