According to the mother of a friend with whom the 23-year-old now lives, she became aware of the friendly woman’s ordeal recently.
A former male friend violently assaulted the attractive blonde on her birthday on 23 March. She sustained a broken jaw and went to a government hospital in Klerksdorp for treatment. Unfortunately, the surgery left her disfigured.
“I just could not leave her like this as her own family did not even want to help. I started phoning around and me and my husband were starting to organize a medical fund for her when I started speaking to Dr Dangor based at Fountain Private Hospital.
When Dr Dangor however heard that these were domestic violence injuries, he approached the Fountain Private Hospital’s Mr Benecke, who agreed to assist, in line with the mission and vison of Africa Health Care which is Caring ,
Healing and Leading.”
According to Dr Zain Dangor, the maxillofacial and oral surgeon who operated on the young woman, her jaw was broken in two places after two separate domestic violence incidents.
The bone had not aligned correctly after the surgery in the government hospital. Besides her disfigurement, she could not bite either.
During the procedure, called an osteotomy, Dr Dangor broke her jaw again and fixed it properly.
“Hopefully, we will be able to remove the wires in the coming days,” he says.
His patient went into surgery on Friday, 28 May. Although the operation and hospital stay would have cost about R100,000, everything was done for free. The Herald met with her and the woman who had taken her under her wing on Monday.
“I still have some pain but am so grateful to everyone who helped me,” she says. Although her jaw is still a bit swollen and she still cannot eat solid food while the wires keep her jawbone in place, people who do not know her would never suspect that anything was wrong. “Luckily, Covid-19 allows me to wear a mask for the time being,” she giggles. The brave young woman plans to find a job and start building her life as soon as her wounds have healed.
