SWAZI BOY’S E2M OPERATION

MBABANE – Muzi Sifundza who left Swaziland for South Africa for a kidney transplant in 2009, had a successful operation which cost over E2 million.
However, the battle is not yet over as the 14-year-old Muzi will now need E5 500 per month to keep his health in good condition.

For the rest of his life, Muzi will need E5 500 per month for medication and follow up treatment in South Africa. Defaulting on this expensive medication is tragic.  His parents are unemployed and cannot afford to maintain him.  At the age of nine, it was hard for him to get a kidney donor as his mother’s was too big for him and also showed symptoms of cancer.

It was his brother who came to his rescue by donating a kidney at a time when doctors had thrown in the towel. Doctors who treated him - free of charge - had kept him at Johannesburg General Hospital to await death. This is contained in a correspondence between Marang House and local donor seekers made available to the Times SUNDAY to help sensitise the donor community, including government to come to the rescue of this young man. 
Muzi is currently being kept at Marang House, Johannesburg, South Africa, until December 7, 2013. Marang House admits children with chronic illnesses until they are 14 – the age Muzi has attained.

Giving the background of the boy’s case, Marang House management stated: “At the end of 2006, we were approached by the social workers at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital to see if we could admit a boy who was transferred from Swaziland. He was seven years of age and was diagnosed with chronic renal failure.”   “Muzi, as he is fondly known by staff and children at Marang House, was admitted to the home on January 4, 2007. Born in Swaziland into a very poor and disadvantaged background, his parents are both unemployed.

“As is the policy at Marang House, we never discuss the child’s parents, siblings or their backgrounds with the child. Everything is discussed through the social workers, unless the child feels a need to mention something from his background, as every child admitted to the home has a very unique background.”
The management said Muzi was a very respectful, clean-faced young boy with a purposeful look in his eyes who has the most amazing sense of humour.
“That’s the beauty of this child – who up until 2010 stared death in the face every day, but he never once lost his will to live,” said management.

Marang House said Muzi returned to Swaziland at the end of 2009 and was treated in Mbabane after leaving Marang House and Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital because doctors could do no more for him. The dialysis was no longer an option. During this time, it is stated, Marang House lost all correspondence with Muzi, his family and doctors in Swaziland and thought he had passed away. 

“In March 2010, we received a call from Dr Gottlich at the Morningside Hospital inquiring if we had space for one of his kidney transplant patients – it turned out to be Muzi and we were very pleased for him. He was admitted back to Marang House, three months after his kidney transplant,” stated management.

It is said that Muzi has recovered well – and lives a very normal life as long as he has his ongoing medication and follow-up appointments at the Morningside Hospital. In 2011 Muzi underwent a further operation at the Sunninghill Hospital to insert pins into his legs to straighten them; otherwise he could have become crippled.

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