Cancer, Covid-19 and chemo: Young boy fighting for his life

An eight-year-old boy from Pretoria had his middle finger amputated last week after he was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer known as Ewing’s sarcoma, and survived a Covid-19 infection.

Danie Junior (DJ) Kruger is recovering at home having been discharged from Steve Biko Hospital after the middle finger on his right hand was amputated on Tuesday.

Kruger was born without an elbow socket, which caused his arm to grow in the wrong direction.

“He was supposed to undergo an operation in June last year, to connect the arms with a wire to help with the tension from the missing bone,” his grandmother, Sanet Gouws, said.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the operation was postponed to September last year.

The boy’s father also suddenly died in June 2020.

Before the operation could take place, Kruger returned from school one afternoon in August with his hand swollen to the size of a tennis ball.

He underwent emergency magnetic resonance imaging and a bioscopy a week later when the doctors discovered a tumour in his hand and he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma cancer.

Danie Junior Kruger is undergoing intensive bouts of chemotherapy. Pictures: Supplied

Kruger’s tumour is located around the knuckle of his right middle finger. Because Ewing’s sarcoma is a very aggressive cancer, he started his 60-hour sessions of chemotherapy at the end of September.

He receives chemotherapy every 21 days.

“He received his first chemo treatment in segments: 20 hours of chemo, then rested four hours, followed by another 20 hours of chemo and more flushing over few days.”

Gouws said it was amazing how Kruger danced out of the hospital after 60 hours of chemotherapy.

“But a week after chemo, DJ’s body breaks down. He receives a different type of chemo that has bad side-effects on his stomach, heart, and its growth.”

Gouws said last year DJ got a bad infection from being constipated due to the chemotherapy and was hospitalised for eight days.

“The doctors initially said they would try not to amputate the finger but had no choice when the cancer spread to the bone of the finger from the knuckle.”

When the operation was due in February, it was again postponed but this time because he had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.

Finally, the tumour was removed from Kruger’s hand on Wednesday, and he is expected to start his second round of chemotherapy on 29 March.

It will be spread over eight sessions of 60 hours per session.

“Earlier this week, I felt defeated and he made me a deal that if I won’t give up he won’t either, so we promised.”

Gouws said a friend DJ met at the hospital had recently died.

“It hurts to realise your child is going through the same thing that killed the other child. It scares you.

“When his hair started falling out from the chemo he would sit and pull out pieces of his hair.”

Kruger told his grandmother that at least he did not get so hot with a bald head.

“It’s sad to see this little man without his hair. It breaks you. When he gets sick from the treatment, it breaks you,” Gouws said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za

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