Girl (17) needs hip operation

She has a big heart for animals and her desire is to have a career in wildlife rehabilitation, but a defect on not one, but both her hips, could mean she won’t be able to achieve her life goals.

On a day-to-day basis Vanessa faces constant pain and discomfort as the joints in her hips don’t function properly.

After sustaining a leg injury in April 2014, Vanessa visited a doctor and was placed under an MRI scan in November, that year, which revealed she had been suffering from hip-joint damage caused by an abnormality in the shape of her hip bones; a condition she unknowingly had from birth.

Doctors have informed her that she needs hip arthroscopic surgery to treat her condition, which will cost roughly R130 000, an expense her single-parent mother simply cannot afford.

The community of Benoni will, however, come on board on March 6, to lighten the financial burden through a fund-raiser.

Doctors discovered Vanessa’s condition after an accident.

“I was taking part in the pipe band nationals in Amanzimtoti, together with my school’s pipe band, playing the drums, when my right foot caught in a tent rope left on the field and my leg was pulled out from under me as I marched,” said the Airfield resident.

Despite serious injury to her leg, the Benoni High pupil still participated at the nationals and continued to play for the Benoni High School Pipe Band, unaware of the urgency of her condition until doctors informed her and her family of the lesions in her hips that were getting worse.

Although Vanessa takes medication, it does very little to ease the pain, because of the extent of the damage to her hip joints.

The 17-year-old said that, ever since she can remember, she has always experienced pain in both hips, although the left one is now worse, as well as in her back, but always maintained it was “not that serious”.

“Vanessa never likes to draw attention to herself and so she never really explained her pain to me, but since the injury, a year and a half ago, I can clearly see the toll it’s had on her and it keeps getting worse,” said her mother, Alexa Jones.

Alexa explained that her daughter faces many hardships and, thus, does not enjoy a “normal” teenage life.

“She struggles to sit down for prolonged periods of time because of the pain. She cannot walk for long distances, not even with her crutches, as her arms begin to hurt because of the pressure of having to carry her weight,” Vanessa’s concerned mother added.

In Grade 11, alone, Vanessa missed a total of 94 days of school because of the extreme difficulty and pain that her condition had brought about, but, despite this, she was able to maintain good grades, achieving two distinctions and a 74 per cent average in the last school term.

Benoni High School has been very supportive in trying to ease the pressure on the matric student by using practicality.

School teaching and office staff have collected work and made it available for the teenager to work from home.

The school has also extended submission dates on formal assessments and adapted her timetable so that all, except one, of her teachers are on the ground floor and she doesn’t have to climb stairs.

Vanessa’s older sister, Ashleigh, stays at home to take care of her sister and has temporarily put her dreams of being a dancer on hold.

In efforts to raise funds for the much-needed hip operation, friends of the teenage girl have approached the East Rand District Scout Open Water Swim fund-raising organisation which responded positively.

The organisation will be holding a Hip Swim event at Homestead Dam, on March 6, to raise funds for Vanessa.