A Mitchell’s Plain mother feared more trauma lay ahead for her 11-year-old daughter with Down Syndrome injured in the stoning of her school bus during the taxi strike on Monday.
Bahia Janodien, 35, sobbed as she spoke about her daughter Shumeez Scott.
“I don’t know what the future holds for Shumeez. It looks like there will be more emotional times ahead,” said Janodien.
Her daughter needed an emergency eye operation on Tuesday to make sure she did not completely lose sight in her left eye.
This came after she received facial injuries when the school bus in which she and fellow special-needs pupils, some in wheelchairs, were being transported was stoned on Lansdowne Road.
Shumeez was treated at the N1 City hospital for the facial wounds but doctors at another hospital later discovered her left eye’s cornea had been injured.
She had started crying constantly and her mother noticed swelling on her eye, she told the Cape Times on Wednesday.
Janodien said surgeon Mohamed Dawood Saloojee had earlier said Shumeez had lost half of her left eye’s sight.
The doctor then spotted a 3.5mm cut to the cornea which had to be stitched.
Janodien said Saloojee could not say when Shumeez would fully regain her sight while a psychologist foresaw more emotional distress for her.
Doctors had ordered her parents to keep her indoors and away from sunlight for two weeks. A psychologist from her school - Filia Special School in Goodwood - would pay Shumeez regular visits.
Shumeez spent most of her time in bed in her bedroom filled with presents and get-well-soon messages from family, friends and schoolmates.
On a large card with photographs of Shumeez, flowers and a dolphin, a message from her teacher and fellow pupils read: “We love you very much Shumeez, you are like a sunflower. We miss you; you are the beat of our hearts, get well soon.”
Janodien said the incident had left her daughter terrified of going to school.
She thanked friends and family members who sent messages of support and hospital staff, especially Minyone Raffels, Mujahied Begg and a number of doctors.
“If it wasn’t for them my daughter would have lost her sight completely.”
Shumeez’s father Shaeed Scott said he had had sleepless nights since the incident.
Meanwhile, police said they were investigating all violent incidents during the taxi strike, including the murder of a bakery truck driver shot dead in Nyanga on Monday. - Cape Times