Rebekah enjoys a new lease on life

“I’m really excited my trachea hole has closed up,” laughs six-year-old Rebekah van Rooyen when asked what she is most looking forward to in 2024. By ‘trachea hole’, she means the tracheostomy stoma in her windpipe that once helped her breathe but excluded her from the fun and games that most other six-year-olds take for granted. Now that the stoma has healed, Rebekah can’t wait to make her wishes come true by visiting the beach, swimming in the sea, taking up judo and doing all the other things she had never been able to enjoy.

Rebekah certainly got off to a difficult start in life. She didn’t cry when she was finally delivered by C-section after her mother, Amanda, had endured a 48-hour labour. Doctors sent the newborn straight to ICU, where she was diagnosed with laryngomalacia. This a common condition in infants where floppy tissues in the voice box can fall over the infant’s airway. In most cases, the tissues firm up and the problem goes away.

But not in Rebekah’s case.

After a series of further complications, she was eventually referred to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, where an ENT specialist identified that her airway was almost completely blocked by a web of skin between her vocal cords. After undergoing an emergency tracheotomy, Rebekah – supported throughout by her family – spent the next four years and many more visits to the Hospital living with her trachea tube.

Seeing their child being excluded from normal life was heart-breaking for Amanda and her husband, Andre. “I admit I shed more than just a tear when Rebekah had her first swim at the beach recently,” confides Amanda. “It was a truly life-changing moment seeing her splashing away without any risk that her stoma would let water or sand into her airway. We waited six years to see our precious daughter get the chance to enjoy a normal childhood. Now she’s free to follow her dreams!”

This festive season, give sick and injured children the opportunity to reach for what they want by donating to the Children’s Hospital Trust. 100% of your donation goes towards paediatric infrastructural projects and programmes.