Thandolwakhe’s long-awaited surgery brings hope and healing

Having a sick child is never nice for the child or the parent, but having a child who is constantly sick, is another story. Nozi is sitting at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital with her nine-year-old daughter, Thandolwakhe, and all she feels today is a huge relief. Yes, her daughter is about to have surgery and that itself has its measure of anxiety, but to Nozi this day couldn’t have come soon enough.

Nozi recalls their journey. “Thandolwakhe has always been a sickly child. We started becoming more concerned last year when we realised that it was getting harder for us to go to work. We were taking a lot of sick leave and Thandolwakhe was absent from school regularly. There were many nights spent at the hospital with her. And when she gets tonsilitis her body temperature just goes high. And even though her temperature is high, she still feels cold and wants to cover herself in blankets. She is constantly thirsty and wants something cold to drink.”

After years of doctor and hospital visits, costing the family more than they had in terms of time and money, it was eventually decided that Thandolwakhe needed to have her tonsils removed. She had been suffering severe bouts of tonsilitis for a long time, which was always exacerbated by her asthma. “This has been a very difficult journey for us. We would go to the clinic, and they would tell us that the tonsils are back. She would go to school and if she’d get the slightest cold or fever, the tonsilitis would be triggered. She is also asthmatic so whenever she would have an asthma attack it would always be accompanied by the tonsils.”

However, the journey didn’t stop there. Her surgery was supposed to take place in February, then it was moved to June to the Mitchell’s Plain District Hospital, and then finally it was moved to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and onto the Weekend Waiting List.

The WWL is an initiative funded by the Children’s Hospital Trust and is carried out at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and recently at Tygerberg Hospital too. Due to the severe backlog of elective or “non-urgent” surgeries, the Children’s Hospital Trust created an initiative that adds two extra days of surgery per month for these elective surgeries. This initiative takes place every second Saturday from July until December and allows children like Thandolwakhe to be able to have important surgeries done sooner than usual without the regular postponement of these surgeries purely due to capacity and urgency. It doesn’t make these surgeries any less urgent to the families, however, who suffer immense financial and emotional strain from their children constantly being unwell.

“I’m very happy she is having this surgery today because it will also be a financial relief for us because when she would get sick, we would often go to the doctor. And a GP is about R480 a consultation. Or we would go to the clinic and that would mean a day out of work because it’s the whole day. Or we would go to the nearest pharmacy and have to buy over-the-counter medication, which was also very costly. So, this has been a toll, as well as the travelling from Gugulethu to the hospital for the checkups when needed, it has also been very costly to us.”

Nozi looks at her beautiful nine-year-old daughter, excited by the thought of her being a happy and healthy child again. “It has been a challenging journey for us all, but we are glad that we are finally here, and we are thankful to the donors for making it possible for us to help heal our children. Without them, we would not be here today.”

Help little ones like Thandolwakhe get the surgeries they need by donating to our Weekend Waiting List Initiative. 100% of your donations go directly towards the programme.