I would like to introduce you to a little girl called Shylo. She was born
19 months ago with Congenital Diaphragmatic hernia.
For the first 10 months of her life she lived in the ICU at Panorama
mediclinic hospital in Durbanville Cape Town. She is known there as "The
eight million rand baby". (753224.80 US Dollars)
This is because that up till now this is how much her medical costs have
been.
She finely left ICU when she turned 10 months, she had never been out the
ward in her life.
9 months on and she is doing wonderfully. She has been on a ventilator at
home, and now even though being weaned off it is still completely oxygen
dependant. She also has a feeding tube due to the fact that she never
learnt to eat while being intubated so long, also a oxygen saturation
monitor, and a suction machine to clear the tubes and her lungs
of any phlegm. . She also has an oxygen concentrator for home use only. It
weighs a ton just about
Shylo's dad has had to take a job overseas in order to cover some medical
costs and allow her mom to stay at home and care for her 24 hrs a day. He
has only been home 49 days in the past 19 months to be with his daughter
that her loves so dearly.
Today cape town has had 3 rolling electricity blackouts lasting up to 3 hours each.
These black outs can go on for weeks as they did in 2008. And luckily
every machine has battery backup except one... Her oxygen concentrator.
She can only leave the house for a couple of hours a month due to the one
cylinder of oxygen she receives this has also made her mother house bound
for the past 9 months.
I spoke to the mother today and she was telling me how some people in the
UK want to try start getting donations so that she can afford to buy a POC.
Which is why I thought I would reach out to you.
Shylo requires a Personal Oxygen Concentrator which costs +- R50,000 or $4700 US.
With the fact her medical costs have been so high already, the medical insurance company
refuse to get her this essential life saving equipment.
When most people in South Africa are surviving on less than R20,000 per year, you can see
this piece of equipment is not within her reach.
I just want to give both the child and the mother some form of a sense of normality to their lives.
This little girl, although hooked up to machines, is a normal bubbly
little 19 month old child who likes to smile, giggle, and play. But she
cant leave the house.
Please can you help me make her mothers dream a reality and provide her
little girl with some sense of normality. Can you imagine taking your 19
month old child out to discover things for the first time , or to simply
be able to go shopping with your child?
She is a first time mom and has totally dedicated herself to her girl.
What a wonderful present it would be to show her that there are people
out there that admire and respect her for how hard she tries.
If anyone has a POC or knows someone that has a POC that would be willing to donate it on
a temporary basis until she no longer needs it could you please contact me.
Either by facebook / barry.schulman
or via email: info@cleftangels.co.za
Thank you
5 мар 2014
