Charlotte’s Road to Recovery

Hi, my name is Conrad.

In October 2015 my mom, Charlotte Kroucamp, who already had high blood pressure and diabetes, had a stroke which resulted in loss of communication, which - thanks to the Lord Jesus - she regained her speech and strength. The financial burden of the medical costs continually escalates, more medication added to her already steep financial costs.

As a result of the stroke, her heart suffered damage and she ended up going for heart bypass operation on the 5th of January 2016 in the Wilgers Hospital, Pretoria.

After an 8 hour surgery, the doctors determined that a vein was leaking and my mom underwent another 3 hour heart surgery to stop the leaking vein.

As a result of both the operations, she has another stroke while being in hospital, to only weaken her already compromised health dilemma.

She spent from the 5th of January until the 16th of February 2016 in high intensive care, where she was transferred to a rehabilitation Hospital called Eugene Marais in Pretoria.
At this stage my mom could not walk, speak, use the bathroom, she was bed bound.

To add to the already bad situation, my sister Amanda, could only visit my mom about twice a week and everyone else stays at least 2 hours away, which caused them to be able to only visit over weekends.

My mom was not getting visitors for days at a time, and with the state she was in and her not being able to communicate, she had little or no idea, what has happened to her and where she was and why she was not able to communicate, walk, visit the bathroom by herself etc.

This caused her to become depressed and reluctant to even try and get better. She was in Eugene Marais Hospital from the 16th February until the 7th of March 2016. This long, lonely period, took a toll on her.

God created an opportunity for me and my wife Cindy to fly up to Pretoria from Cape Town on the 3rd of March 2016 and spent all our time at the hospital with my mom, in the hope that she will get well again.

We were told by the Doctor and head of the Rehabilitation Hospital that the medical aid my mom was on, were about to be withdrawn, resulting in that my mom would have to leave the hospital by the next week.

The medical aid's contribution at this stage was over R 1 015 112. 83 but it left my mom and dad with a shortfall of R 50 578.58 that the medical aid won't cover. My mom and dad draws a government pension of R1434.00 each per month and most of that money is going towards medical expenses.

All the brothers and my sister got together on Saturday, the 5th of March 2016, to discus the way forward, since the hospital would not release my mom unless there was a qualified sister to take care of her at home or she had to go to a state frail care old age home, which has a long waiting list. We managed to secure a qualified sister to take care of her at home and was able to get her released on Monday the 7th of March 2016.

She is recuperating at home (my mom and dad stays with my brother and his wife, since they can not afford a place of their own). My mom is getting stronger each day by the grace of our Lord and Master.

She still has the R 50 578.58 shortfall for the medical expenses to pay back and there are other costs involved as well, like the qualified sister, which costs R 4500.00 per month from 8H00 to 16H00 - 5 days a week. Whenever my brother and his wife are not at work, they take care of them which in itself is ongoing expense.

If God leads you to donate any amount towards paying the medical bill shortfall and other ongoing medical expenses, may our Lord and Father bless you seven times over, in Jesus Name.