A TEENAGE boy from Walmer Township in Nelson Mandela Bay recently finally received life-changing heart surgery after being on the waiting list for 16 years.
Zithobile Dayile (17) is currently recovering at home after his successful operation a few weeks ago.
The surgery, performed at Busamed Private Hospital in Paarde-vlei, in the Western Cape, was performed on Zithobile to repair a faulty tube situated inside a hole in his heart.
Zithobile’s mother, Sindiswa Dayile, expressed her joy at the fact that her boy is now healthier than ever before.
She explained that before the surgery, her son would have daily nose bleeds but this has stopped since he received the surgery.
He also used to cough continuously, which made him choke and this seems to no longer be an issue. Now the family is just waiting to see if these complications are gone for good.
“In short, my son is recovering well but has not yet returned to school since he was released from the hospital on February 12. His doctors said that he must rest for a few weeks before going back to school.”
Upon receiving the news that her child was finally going to receive the lifesaving operation, Dayile said that she was quite scared and worried, but that after the operation, her fear turned into great relief and laughter as they were all happy that the operation went well.
“Now we are happy that he finally received the surgery we had all been waiting for, for almost 16 years. I used to take him to the clinic so that they could make sure he was okay.
“Initially, the doctors thought that the hole in his heart would heal by itself, but they later realised that he would need surgery,” Dayile said.
“I would like to thank everyone who played a role in making the operation possible. Now, the next step is to assist him to access a disability grant,” she added.
Zithobile is the fourth child to be operated on to fix a heart defect. The first three children who received life-saving surgery between 2021 and the present, were also from the Eastern Cape.
The surgeries were made possible by the Pelo Foundation, a non-profit organisation that raises funds and awareness for children in serious need of heart treatment and surgery, and its partners, which include Busamed Private Hospital Group, where the children underwent the surgery, and Wings and Wishes, which transported the children to the Western Cape.
Busamed Paardevlei Private Hospital Cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Michael Janson, said that the surgery was a success.
“We operated on him to close the hole in his heart and also to fix the fault that was there. If the boy had not undergone the operation, there were chances that he would in future suffer from hypertension.
“Normally these kinds of operations are performed when the child is around five years old, but with this child, the symptoms were not as problematic. We aim to operate on at least one child a week and believe it will make a huge difference,” Janson explained.
He added that, normally, children could be on the waiting list for about two years.
Busamed Group clinical manager, Dr Christelle de Jager, added that South Africa has hundreds of children who are on the heart-surgery waiting list.
It is estimated that one out of every 1 000 babies is born with congenital heart disease and that every six hours a newborn is added to the waiting list.
The partnership with Busamed, Pelo Foundation and Wings and Wishes exists to ensure that many more children born with CHD can access this much needed surgery to improve their quality of life.
Pelo Foundation’s Dudu Mvimbi Leshabane, said that there are thousands of children waiting to receive heart treatment or surgery.
“If these children do not get immediate attention, they may die. The foundation aims at achieving its mission by raising funds to ensure that children with congenital heart disease receive lifesaving surgery and continue to receive medical treatment that could give them a chance to live normal lives,” Leshabane said.
“Our vision is to ensure that Africa’s children with congenital heart disease who come from indigent communities, may have a chance to make it to adulthood.”
