‘Help me save my little girl’s life’
The parents of a four-year-old Mount Moriah girl who was diagnosed with leukaemia in January are in a desperate bid to her life.
HAZEL Mthembu is one of the few cardiac scrub nurses in the country. The nursing care that she provides is vital for cardiac patients to survive the major heart surgery they undergo.
So when there is an emergency, Netcare Umhlanga Hospital based nurse has to make her way into the operating room to save lives.
Yet this Mount Moriah mother of three says her life is being consumed with not only saving her patients’ lives but that of her youngest child, Manelisi who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in January.
The Northglen News met Hazel and her husband Sipho at Netcare Umhlanga Hospital yesterday where the couple had arranged, with the Sunflower Fund to collect blood samples of the hospital staff to see if any one of them matched Neli.
Each test costs R2000. Neli’s father, Sipho is also a nurse but he works at Life Entabeni Hospital. The four-year-old needs a bone marrow transplant urgently.
“Neli started getting sick round about October last year and we done the usual thing of taking her to the doctor. But then she started getting temperatures of 39 and 40 we became worried. She lost weight and her belly was enormous. We only found out that she had leukemia this year.”
But the couple said they thought they could pay for their daughter’s treatment from their own pockets and using their medical aid scheme. But they had no idea what they were in for.
“It is only now that we realised that there is no way we could afford to give Neli the treatment that she needs. We are currently waiting to hear how much our medical aid will pay towards her treatment.”
It’s now eight months since the fateful diagnoses and the little girl urgently needs a bone marrow transplant by the end of this month.
“We have found a potential donor from America and the procedure is due to take place at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. But this is only a potential donor, which means it may match but it is not guaranteed,” Hazel said.
She added: “Every month, for an entire week, that is seven days, my little girl undergoes intensive treatment. So for that week, except for one day, I go to work every day or night and spend the rest of the time nursing Neli.
“She undergoes intensive chemotherapy which means that she is constantly nauseous, she is vomiting, she is pumped with loads of fluids and this means that she literally wees every 10 minutes. So I do not sleep for a week,” Hazel said while trying to hold back the tears in the Netcare Umhlanga Hospital staff room.
She said that the treatment had “eaten” her child. “It’s a difficult thing to watch your child go through. I wish it did not have to be about money, but unfortunately it is. We have raised R43 367.56 so far.
“We are waiting for our medical aid to tell us how much they will cover and we are waiting for an overall cost of the entire treatment and this we should know by the end of this week. But we want to be prepared because we know that treatment runs into thousands.”
The couple said even though it was the norm for cancer patients to go into remission at some stage of the treatment, their daughter’s condition has remained unchanged.
Neli has the support of Netcare Umhlanga Hospital whose marketing officer, Sheena Dhunlal said: “I saw Neli the other day and she told me that she is tired of being brave. It seems that this little girl who has to ensure so much spirit is being broken.”
Her mother said that Neli has never been in remission since her diagnoses.
To help Neli, in any way call her mother Hazel: on 073 662 0146, 062 045 2138 or her father Sipho on 073 611 2467.
To make a cash deposit to help Neli deposit into the following account:
FNB, Savings Account, Account Number: 62486718566, Davenport Branch, 250655 (Branch Code).
