Johannesburg - A matter of hours after The Star hit the shelves on Thursday, the newspaper received an e-mail from Randfontein Private Hospital offering to help Michael Jansen*.
The orphan was let down by public hospitals after breaking his collarbone.
“We would like to assist Michael… we can arrange for an orthopaedic surgeon to see him and he can be treated at our hospital. The treatment will be pro bono,” wrote customer relations officer Octavia Hlongwane in her e-mail.
Michael, 17, from Eldorado Park, broke his collarbone in a soccer match on April 20. What followed was a nightmare of being shunted to three public hospitals, with many hours spent in waiting rooms with no food or painkillers.
For over a week, Michael was promised surgery, but each time it was postponed for other emergencies.
After being moved to a third hospital, he couldn’t take it anymore and went home. He was told to return in four to six weeks for treatment, leaving him frustrated and scared.
His biggest fear was that he would no longer be able to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
To make matters worse, Missouri Avenue Secondary School has not allowed him to continue attending classes out of concern that he will be injured in the busy corridors.
Despite receiving school work from a friend, Michael is concerned that he will fail Grade 10 and have to repeat it.
Hlongwane said it was a spontaneous reaction to want to help Michael when hospital staff read his story in The Star. “It was to do with how he was taken from one hospital to another and not being able to get help. He suffered so much. If you go to a hospital you should be able to get help.”
Hlongwane and her manager approached a hospital director, who immediately agreed to help the teenager.
When Michael heard the news on Saturday, he could hardly speak. “I’m feeling good now, I’m happy,” the shy teenager said over the phone.
His mentor at the Growing Champions youth development upliftment programme, Samantha Toweel-Moore, who was with him when he got the phone call, described the boy’s reaction: “He was shell-shocked. He broke into this big smile and said ‘I’m so excited’. I don’t think he thought in his wildest dreams that this kind of outcome was going to ever happen.”
The Star