Jolene van der Mescht /Slabbert

My name is Jolene van der Mescht / Slabbert, I’m a 28-year-old female who urgently needs a biliary reconstruction surgery. The reason for this surgery is because of:

In January 2019 I had severe abdominal pains, went to Tambo Memorial Hospital (As I have no medical aid) to have myself checked out. At the hospital they told me that I have an inflamed gallbladder with gallstones and that they would book me for surgery. They then sent me home with antibiotics, until the inflammation cleared up, and they said that I would be ready for the surgery on the 11^th of February 2019.

On the Sunday the 10^th of February I went back with the same severe pains, just to find out that the inflammation had set in again. On this day they admitted me to hospital and I was put on a course of antibiotics, and told to stay in hospital until they did the surgery to remove the gallbladder and the gallstones on the 20^th of February 2019. I was sent home the 22^nd of February 2019.

A week and 2 days later my stomach started bleeding, and my abdomen was heavily swollen. On the Sunday 3^rd of March 2019 I went back to Tambo memorial hospital to have myself checked out. I was admitted at 22H00 Sunday evening in ward 10. At this time I was in such severe pain, and none of the Doctors knew what was wrong with me. On the Monday 4^th of March 2019 a Doctor wanted to do a colonoscopy to see where the blood was coming from in my colon. They have given me medicine to clean out my colon for the colonoscopy. During this time, the pain and inflammation just got worse.

Wednesday the 6^th of March I was transferred to the surgical ward at 06H00 for the colonoscopy. While waiting to be taken to theatre, a Dr came to see me and told me “There is something wrong, and you do not look good”. By this time, I already developed Jaundice. The Dr went to make a phone call and was back within 10 mins to transfer me to Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital.

An ambulance took me to Baragwaneth Hospital at 17H00 on 6^th of March 2019.A doctor at Baragwaneth hospital came to me to say that I needed an emergency wash out procedure. At 21H00 that evening I had my 2^nd surgery for the emergency wash out, and they removed 7.5L of bile. This was when I got my first drain.This surgery helped with the relieving of the pain that I felt within a few days. Unfortunately during surgery they discovered that one of my ducts was cut when they removed the gallbladder, which is the cause of the pain etc. The resultant damage from them cutting the duct was that they had to put a stent as well as a pigtail drain in my abdomen to continuously drain the bile. This was done in order to save my life as the Jaundice and resultant infection would have killed me.

After this surgery I had another 6 surgeries and 4 drains. (Please see attached all medical reports with regards to the surgeries and drains). I was hospitalized for a total of 2 months before I had the chance to see my 2 children (3 years & 1.5 years).

It was an extremely difficult time in which I couldn’t see my children, because I had no energy, as I could barely walk to the bathroom and back without fainting. My body was weak, I could only consume fluids, as I was not allowed solid food to eat. I had drains, drips and blood taken every single day 4 -5 times to monitor the infection in my blood.

Today 6 months later myself and my family relocated to Durban, I saw a specialist who told me the last pigtail drain on E3 will need to be removed as my drain has already “expired” its life span, and I need biliary reconstruction surgery to have a normal life again.

I am asking for donations for this surgery. If you could please send this on to family and friends. I have attached all related documents, quotes etc. with regards to this procedure to be done.

I do hope there is some Angels who would be able to assist me urgently.

Thank you for taking time to read my letter, above are some pictures of the drains as well as relevant documents.