A proactive assistant nurse at Helen Joseph led to a desperately ill man being reunited with his family, months after he went missing.
Unidentified for months due to memory loss from devastating injuries, Tshepo Modukanele was brought to the emergency department by paramedics in November.
After weeks in the ICU, he was transferred to the Neuro and Urology ward where assistant nurse Kgomotso Moshobane first met him.
Weeks went by with intensive treatment from a multidisciplinary team including speech therapy.
Moshobane asked him as she did every day, “Who are you?” but no response came until one day he was able to tell her.
“I could not believe my ears; it was like I was dreaming and I could not contain my excitement. I called my colleagues to share the good news so we could begin to start trying to trace his family,” said Moshobane.
She turned to Facebook on Friday, March 31. “I thought of Facebook because he looked young and most young people use Facebook. I thought maybe something might come out of it.”
She typed in his name and came across multiple accounts matching his. “I could not believe my luck when I came across an account that had a post about a missing person.”
She sent a message to the author of the post who turned out to be Modukanele’s mother. She had been looking for her son for six months.
“Initially she had a hard time believing the good news because there had been a lot of false alarms in the past. After hospital management spoke to her, arrangements were made for her and the family to come to the hospital.”
On April 1, she and her son were finally reunited. “It was a bittersweet moment when the whole family was finally together again but Modukanele will need to remain in hospital as he receives further treatment. At least now though he can be visited by his family who love and care about him,” said Moshobane.
“It is moments like these that make this profession so worth it, we are proud of our professional nurse in the making”, said Dr. Relebohile Ncha.
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