On 19 April, Ethan Sokol (11 months) was born blind, with a hearing disability and suffers from Congenital Rubella Syndrome – leaving him with two holes in his heart.
His mother, Tatiana Sokol, 21, got measles when she was about three weeks pregnant. She only found out she was pregnant at 27 weeks. During her sonar, there was no indication that there was something wrong with Ethan.
Ethan was born prematurely at 31 weeks. Ethan’s left eye’s retina never developed fully and his right eye has a cataract in it.
Tatiana also has a two year old child and a month old baby boy, Kayden, who also was born with a hole in his heart.
He is currently in Leratong Hospital’s ICU unit. Ethan is going for a heart operation on 26 April where they will insert a Heart Duct Occluder Amplatzer at the Steve Biko Hospital. His eye operation had to be put on hold as they could not operate on his eyes unless his heart was operated on first.
He can get an eye operation to give him a 50 percent chance in the right eye and a possible 10 percent chance in his left eye. But funding is a problem since Tatiana can not work now as she needs to go visit Kayden in Leratong Hospital and also look after Ethan. She is a single mother that stays with her mom, Cathy van der Westhuizen. Their only income is that of Cathy’s fiancé and they all share one car.
It is very difficult driving Tatiana where she needs to be. At this moment she only has her learners,” said Cathy.
“Tatiana is in between hospitals as Ethan also receives physiotherapy at Leratong Hospital. Our home is very cramped as Tatiana and her three children stay with me and my fiancé. We only have three bedrooms.”
The family would like to ask the community if they could help fund Ethan’s eye operation and if they can help with travelling costs and possibly a garden cottage for Tatiana and her children. They also would like to thank everybody that has assisted them so far.
Anybody who wishes to help, can contact Tatiana on 073 156 8361 or Cathy on 071 424 1230.
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