Page 28 - Waterfall City Issue 10 October 2024

Waterfall City Health

A DREAM

COME TRUE

Lifesaving paediatric heart procedure performed
at local cardiac facility Today, Dante is a healthy blue-eyed boy of
nearly seven months.

A
baby boy born with a heart defect received
lifesaving surgery at the Maboneng Heart
and Lung Institute at Netcare Sunninghill
Hospital, thanks to medical teamwork
spanning the private and public sectors.

“Soon after Dante was born at the end of January this
year, we noticed something was wrong. He was very
difficult to settle; he cried and cried, and he wasn’t
gaining strength and weight as he should have been,” his
mother Jennifer recalls.

So began a harrowing journey for Dante van der Heever’s
family, struggling to make ends meet. At the same time,
their baby son was examined by specialists at Mankweng
Hospital and Polokwane Hospital, and he was admitted
for two weeks to the intensive care unit at Tshilidzini
Hospital. Eventually, the family returned to their home in
Makhado with the news that Dante had a serious heart
problem and would need an operation to save his life.

“Dante barely slept, we knew that he struggled with his
heart. He couldn’t even drink properly, and then he would
be out of breath and sweating. Day and night, we sat
awake, with him in our arms. It was tough; even now, it is
very emotional to think back to that time,” she says.

Dante was placed on a waiting list for the operation at
Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria. However, the
earliest date available was 6 July. “At our next check-up, Dante van der Heever recovering from his heart operation with his relieved
however, the doctors found the situation even more parents, Jennifer and Stefan.
urgent. One part of his heart was doing all the work,
blood wasn’t going to his lower body and organs, and Foundation, which coordinates funding and specialist
they said Dante’s heart could stop at any second – there services to help paediatric patients in the public sector
was a real danger that Dante wouldn’t make it to July.” who require lifesaving heart procedures.

In a race against time, Dante’s doctors started looking “Dante’s condition was severe, and we knew we had to find a
for other ways to help Dante get the operation sooner, way to help,” says cardiothoracic surgeon and co-founder of the
turning to the Netcare Foundation and the Maboneng Maboneng Heart and Lung Institute, Dr Erich Schürmann who

26 Waterfall City Issue 10 2024