By Thomo Nkgadima
news@alexreporter.co.za
A mother whose son and daughter cannot walk because they were born with a frail bone disease cries out for help!
The rare genetic condition of being with a fragile bone, which breaks easily, forces the mother weep for help.
An eleven-year-old boy, Lehaan crawls to move and his 13-year-old sister, Leihaan uses skade board to move around.
The two children may play with other children, but are unable to walk to school.
They are always jealous when the other kids are playing. And their desire is to walk or run when playing with other children. But they can’t walk, a nightmare they want to see disappear soon!
These Ennerdale children near Lenesia in the south of Johannesburg suffer from osteogenesis imperfect (OI), known as fragile bone disease.
It is a genetic disorder characterized by fragile bone that breaks easily.
The crying mom told Alex Reporter that her two children were attending Fransis Voorweg Special School for Children living with disability.
The news about the disease is so devastating for their jobless mother. They were both born with this condition.
During her pregnancy, the doctors at the hospital told Elize that she was diagnosed with “abnormal feet”.
It was not a surprise to her after birth when they didn’t develop like any other children. She often takes them to the hospital for a medical examination, treatment and routine check-up.
Elize says the possibility of her son Lehaan walking is likely, provided he gets proper medical treatment and the care he needs for the other four surgical operations.
“I’m happy his complication doesn’t lead to his permanent disability. He may walk again if he may be treated after 3 surgery operations, he has undergone at the Baragwane Academic Hospital,” she explained.
The unemployed Elize, from an impoverished family, said that although she is looking for work to support her children, she survives on the government’s disability grant.
” I have three children to take care of and I only survive on social grant I get monthly.”
A tearful mother says the most painful thing is when people insult them in her own community.
“I don’t know why that occurs,” she said.
She said there was hope for assistance. “I have seen and heard all this now, I have trouble getting a means of transportation to bring them to school.
“It has been approximately two months since the Corona outbreak and my children are not going to school,” she said.
“The hospital does not make wheelchairs available to my children,” she said.
“This is unacceptable behavior; it hurts me as the mother of God’s beautiful little gift.”
She urges Good Samaritans to help her find work, take her disabled children to school and build her a house to restore her dignity.
