I, J. Hardspear de la Azotea planned this post in anger
& hate… I have been brooding on this for quite longer than a month… My hate and anger was turned by two angels to
love and forgiveness.
My Sister, Honey Bee, five weeks ago, to celebrate a
friend’s birthday, went for a meal to a restaurant in East London where they
live. Instead of good memories, Honey
Bee was incubated by one of the worst food poisoning bugs in existence. This malevolent and evil bacterium resulted
in Honey Bee’s whole system and all organs being shocked into a state of
septicaemia.
Honey Bee ended up in the Intensive Care Unit of the
Hospital of the Holy Lord (which is not really the Holy Lord, but translates to
a Roman Catholic Saint whose name means that…)
Oh for goodness sake the place’s name is Saint Dominique. If you haven’t realised yet, the names of
people I use on this blog is the meaning of their given names.
In this hospital Honey Bee first contracted Hospital
Acquired Pneumonia and then a Nosocomial Infection. A nosocomial infection is the super bug which
only exists in hospitals and is labelled as viruses and bacteria which have
become resistant to most known anti-biotics.
Thirty three years after Honey Bee died and lived again, she
ended up in ICU once more (she spent the first year of her life in Jo’burg
Gen’s ICU). Again she had to have a
tracheostomy (hole in the throat so she can breathe).
On account of the tracheostomy, she now cannot speak. Because of the microscopic yet complete
attack on her body she is paralysed as well.
With God’s protection and the Noir genes she inherited from
my late mother, she survived however. My
other sister and I are innate De La Azoteas.
The Noir side of the family, however all have constitutions like oxen –
The farmers which they are…
Eight months ago God had my path crossed with the Vodacom
Change the World initiative. There I met
two Angels, Drika & Santie. Drika
runs a charity called Opkyk Pathways near Brits. Santie is the Vodacom Volunteer placed there.
Opkyk Pathways focus on interventions with disabled and
abused children at the centre, but they also do community work. They also make use of Equitherapy. Some of the horses they use were also abused
and neglected, and it is incredible to see how the children and horses heal
each other.
Drika & Santie both have a passion for children and
adults who cannot speak. I was astounded
to see the work they do and the ways and means they assist children and adults
to “speak” and communicate. They use
both high- and low tech interventions & devices to assist people to
communicate. High tech devices include
talking photo albums and other apparatus specifically designed to assist people
to communicate, but they are very expensive.
Less expensive devices not specifically designed for this purpose, but
which works wonderfully well includes stuff like electronic label makers which
you can buy from Waltons.
Low tech devices include laminated ABC, phrase & picture
charts where a child can point to pictures or phrases or spell out words.
Because Honey Bee is paralysed, I could not imagine how they
would be able to help, but I contacted Santie & Drika regardless. Both were extremely excited to be able to
assist and they described to me a system where a frame is used which is covered
in Velcro. Cards are then made with “Yes”
and “No” responses, as well as applicable phrases. These are then stuck to the frame and shown
to a paralysed person who cannot speak.
All one then have to do is follow the person’s eyes to see which answer
they are looking at! So simple, so
effective, yet I wonder if I would ever have thought of that!
Santie did most of the work to make a customised system with
appropriate phrases for Honey Bee and THEY DID NOT CHARGE US A CENT FOR THEIR
EFFORT. In appreciation I donated R2000 –
which is not near enough to convey my appreciation.
The communication pack was couriered to my Dad and arrived
on Friday. I cannot wait to hear the
results…
Other bit of good news, is that my Dad on advice from the
doctors applied to have anti-biotics imported from overseas, which may help
fight the infection. It is a long
process, since that specific medicine is not registered in SA, so approval had
to be obtained first before it could be ordered. It took more than 3 weeks, but eventually
that also arrived on Friday.
