Jessica’s story and how her parents use it to help others

A heart warming group, called Jessica’s Friends, donated towards the care of a Little Eden resident, Dumi.

The group attended Little Eden’s Christmas concert and donated R85 000, which they had raised through the recent 94.7 Cycling Challenge.

Mrs Michelle and Mr Brendon Muroaur are the parents of the late Jessica Muroaur.

Jessica died in 2014 and in memory of their daughter who died prematurely, the group Jessica’s Friends was formed.

The main purpose of the group is to raise funds through various activities for children in need.

“We had just participated in the Momentum 94.7 race and the previous year as Ride for Jessica. We decided to continue with this in her name, as her legacy, as Ride for Jessica’s Friends.

“This is our way of holding on, managing our loss and keeping her memory alive,” said Jessica’s mother, Michelle.

She said Jessica, their perfect, healthy, blue-eyed princess, was born in 2006 and at six months they were advised to take her for an assessment with a physiotherapist as she was not reaching her milestones as she should.

“We were told that she had low muscle tone which could be an underlying issue of a number of conditions. The next few years were filled with lots of doctors visits and tests. Jess had also started regular physio, occupational therapy and speech therapy. She also started having seizures,” said Michelle.

She said at five years old, Jess was finally diagnosed with a micro duplication on one of her X Chromosomes.

She said her daughter could not walk nor speak.

“Although she was very vocal in her own way, and still wore nappies, unfortunately Jess’s epilepsy had also evolved and we were having difficulty controlling her seizures. We started her on the Ketogenic Diet which really proved beneficial for Jess as initially we went 21 days seizure-free,” she said.

Michelle said they had to make the decision to remove Jess from nursery school where she was placed in a special needs class.

“We found that she was not progressing at all, despite her ongoing weekly therapies and we decided to employ a care giver who was able to do Jess’s therapies twice a day and provide one-on-one care for her.

“This helped immensely, although therapy time always landed up in screaming and tears. She did not enjoy the exercises,” she said.

In January 2014, Jess developed a fever.

Her parents managed this overnight as they had done many times before. By Saturday morning, her fever continued and they took her to casualty.

She was subsequently admitted and the doctor started with a number of tests.

“It was not until the Sunday morning that we were told the severity of her condition. We were told that Jess needed to be transported to the ICU ward at a nearby hospital and that she would need to be intubated and sedated for the journey to the hospital. After a long agonising while, Jessica’s father, Brendon and I were called into the ward with no idea of the heart wrenching news that awaited us.

“Jess had gone into cardiac arrest while they were preparing her for transportation and they were unable to save her. In that moment, our world came crashing down around us. We always knew that Jess would be dependent on us but we had always said we were fortunate because Jess’s condition was not terminal.

“We had made friends with special needs children who were terminal and we knew that could not be easy,” said Michelle.

“Brendon and I had always felt very alone in our journey with Jess, that no one could fully understand our feeling of helplessness and her feeling of frustration in not being able to move around freely or communicate. That was until the day of her passing and at her memorial service. We had over 100 people who joined us to celebrate her life, many who say how much Jess had touched their hearts and lives,” she said.

The couple has undertaken to give back to those in need in memory of their beloved daughter.