AFTER fighting for her life for more than 200 days in the intensive care unit in the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital (RMSH), a Northern Cape mother has finally left her sick bed and will be returning home to her family.
Dubbed the “Fairy Princess” of the RMSH, 37-year-old Masabata Jafta, who lives between Hartswater and Taung, was finally woken from her induced coma last Monday after being unconscious and on a ventilator for almost three months.
Barely able to speak as a result of the wound in her throat caused by the tracheostomy, Jafta was asked to write her story down but she was adamant, she wanted to tell her story. “No I am not tired. I can still talk some more. I want people to hear my story.”
Jafta said she could not believe she was alive.
“Before I went into intensive care I was very afraid that I wouldn’t make it, but when I woke up last Monday I cried. If the hospital staff didn’t hold me back I would have jumped up and down. I went through a lot of emotions. I was sad and happy at the same time. I couldn’t believe that after all this time I was still alive.” she said from her hospital bed yesterday.
Jafta was admitted to the RMSH approximately nine months ago to give birth to her baby. “I came in as a gynae patient and after I lost my baby, I contracted pneumonia. After more tests the doctors found out I had a problem with my lungs and I have been in the intensive care unit since then.”
She said that when she woke up she couldn’t do anything. “All I could do was eat a little bit of bread.”
Jafta went on to say that she doesn’t think she would have made it had it not been for the support she received not only from her fiancé and her two sisters, but also from the hospital staff who had become her family.
“I can’t thank them enough. The staff here have been absolutely tremendous. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for them. I’m really going to miss them when I return home.”
She added, however, that she also couldn’t wait to see her boys again, she was just waiting for transport to take her home. “I have missed them so much. I know I will be so happy to see them.”
She says once she has undergone rehabilitation at the Hartswater Hospital she wants to start studying to become a home-based caregiver. “I want to teach people how to stay healthy, to love and be thankful for everything that they have - because that is what I am.”