Looking Forward to Getting Better
Tshefu Pefumlela is 21 months old and was one of the new patients seen at the paediatric cardiology clinic at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital this month. He has a large hole in his heart and will be admitted to Red Cross
Knowledge Overcomes Fear for All
The biggest challenge that parents of children with congenital heart conditions report is “the fear of not knowing”. Once they are in the system and doctors have taken time to counsel them on their child’s condition and what the available
Three for Eight is not a Handicap
Akhanani Magengeli is only eight but has already had three operations to correct congenital heart disease. And he will need to have at least one more in the future. His mother, Polisa, said doctors were concerned when they saw a
Tragedy Spurs Her Service to Young Patients
I’m sure it’s true of many of the most passionate health carers – that they were pushed deeper into serving others as a result of their personal experience with a loved one who was seriously ill. Mrs Zandile Ntisana, 50,
A Sore Throat led to a Damaged Heart
In 2014, Kamva Nosifundo’s parents started noticing that she was often tired and complained of pain in her joints. Her parents, Litha and Mgweba, from Mdantsane, brought her to Frere Hospital where Dr Maurice Levy confirmed that rheumatic fever had
State Hospitals Can Have the Edge
It’s fair to say that, given the option or having the resources to check themselves in, most South Africans may prefer being admitted for treatment in a private hospital rather than a State facility. In the 50th anniversary of South
Under-reporting of Heart Disease in SA’s Children
“One-in-a-hundred children in the Eastern Cape are born with heart disease like everywhere else and they need a cardiology service in the province,” says Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital paediatric cardiologist Rik de Decker, whose team treats young children
A Hole in a Heart in a Belly
Thabiso Mabusela was seven months’ pregnant when her doctor spotted a hole in the heart of her unborn baby on a scan. “I was very worried at the time. I was told my baby could be disabled but the doctors
The Queen of Unimaginably Broken Hearts
Noxolo Ntshintshi rattles off a slew of heart conditions – coarctation of the aorta, transposition of the great arteries, single ventricular defect, ventricular septal defect, pulmonary stenosis, hypertrophy of the right ventricle – she had to come to grips with
Current State of Play of Paediatric Hearts Services in EC
Until recently, the Eastern Cape had only one full-time cardiologist in the public sector, based at Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital. That post will be vacant soon as the incumbent, Dr Basil Brown, retires at the end of this year and
A Collaboration between Provincial Hospitals to Heal Broken Hearts
The unique collaboration between Cape Town’s Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital (RCCH) and two government hospitals in the Eastern Cape has a long history. For many decades, and certainly since long before democracy, specialist physicians and surgeons from
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