‘They told me to accept that I am permanently disabled’: Girl left with deformed hand says SA health system failed her (VIDEO)

Mbali Mbambo, a 20-year-old high school pupil from Orange Farm, says the South African public healthcare system has failed her.

According to Mbambo, she developed an allergic reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine given to her at school.

Her hand and arm began to swell and deform.

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She said she has since allegedly been given the runaround by the health department and sought help at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital and Stretford Clinic since 2022.

Mbambo said Stretford Clinic would always transfer her back to Baragwanath Hospital where she was constantly told that they could not help her.

“The clinic [Stretford] has never helped me. I would occasionally go there when it’s cold and I felt pain on my arm.

“The clinic and the hospital keep saying they cannot help me because my hand is ruined,” she said.

Suggestions that arm be amputated

Mbambo told The Citizen when she visited Baragwanath Hospital this week she was told that her hand was never going to get better.

“The doctor that discharged me told me I am permanently disabled and there is nothing they can do for me,” she added.

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She said she was referred to Helen Joseph by a doctor from Baragwanath, who allegedly suggested that she amputate the arm.

“I was heartbroken when I found out that I had to get my arm amputated. I didn’t know what to do when they told me my hand was not going to heal because I thought it would get better,” she said.

‘I miss out on a lot of school’

The matriculant said she has found it hard to cope at school/

“I miss out on a lot of school, especially when it’s cold because I constantly have to go to the hospital as my hand gets too painful,” she added.

Not because of the vaccine

However, the health department said her hand swelling two days after getting the vaccine was just purely coincidental and not caused by the vaccine.

“It was a coincidence that the fracture (broken wrist bone), swelling of hand and wrist drop happened two days after vaccination.

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“There is no way that it can be appropriate to say the swelling of the hand is related or was caused by the vaccination because the damage on the hand was caused by the fracture and injury to the nerve in the arm,” Gauteng Department of Health, Acting Head of Communication Khutso Rabothata told The Citizen.

Furthermore, Rabothata said Mbambo had broken one of her wrist bones – the radial bone. She added that the fracture was likely to have caused the swelling.

She said the injury “was complicated by pressure caused on the nerve in the wrist”, which she said led to Mbambo’s wrist dropping.

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“The final classification indicates that the swelling is not as a result of vaccination given the information provided, and the findings of the investigation,” Rabothata concluded.

‘Bara cannot help me’

Mbambo refuted this and said the healthcare system had not delivered on a promise of providing her with specialist care.

Speaking on Newzroom Afrika, Gauteng Health Pediatrician Dr Helen Bapela said Baragwanath had the highest level of specialists in Gauteng.

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