Swing a club for baby Lumé
A four-ball donation includes lunch and dinner, and there will be prizes, a silent auction as well as a raffle.
A golf day fundraiser is around the bend to help pay the medical bills of eight-month-old Lumé Boshoff.
Lumé, born prematurely on July 13 last year, has a club foot and a congenital heart defect.
Her parents, Mariska and Rudi Boshoff from Brenthurst, were initially told Lumé would need three heart surgeries, one at birth, one at six months, and the third between the ages of two and three.
On August 5 2022, Lumé was discharged. Mariska and Rudi had to buy an oximeter to monitor her oxygen levels.
Several follow-up appointments with her paediatric cardiologist came and went, and on September 2, Lumé’s oxygen was critically low and she was taken to the Life Dalview Hospital emergency room and later admitted to the paediatric ward.
At this time, Lumé was supposed to have had a shunt surgery because the valves in her heart were shrinking, but her surgeon did not want to take the risk because she was too young.
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The family was taken to Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Sandton by ambulance on September 4. There the family spoke to her surgeon about the risks of the second operation and alternative options they could use.
While there, Lumé had to be put on a ventilator and almost an ECMO machine (which does the job of the heart and lungs temporarily) to keep her oxygen levels within an acceptable range.
Mariska and Rudi went to the hospital coffee shop to look for guest houses but were called back and told the surgeon would perform the emergency shunt operation he was previously hesitant to perform.
The surgery went well, and the wound healed fast. During the critical window after surgery, Lumé was on breathing support machines and had 10 intravenous lines. She had fluid build-up in her lungs and needed two drainage pipes inserted.
She was discharged again on September 20, 2022. On November 18, she had her second major surgery and was in theatre for four hours.
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While in the hospital for this procedure, the family received a second opinion from an orthopaedic surgeon about her club foot.
Lumé had to endure a process of casts and specialised shoes to begin to correct her foot.
She will have another check-up with her orthopaedic surgeon on March 28 and a quarterly check-up with her cardiologist.
The family says she is doing well, but their biggest concern is the medical bills that exceed what their medical aid will pay.
Specialist visits are paid out of their medical savings account, which will soon deplete.
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They are concerned they won’t be able to help Lumé live a healthy life if they can not afford continued doctor’s visits and procedures.
According to Lumé’s doctors, she will have a full life, but with a heart defect, anything could change at any time.
The golf day on March 31 will be at the Pollak Park Golf Course in Springs.
There will be prizes, a silent auction, and a raffle. The four-ball registration fee is R1 600, which includes lunch and dinner.
Holes can be sponsored for R2 000. The funds raised go toward the medical bills of almost R50 000 incurred for Lumé’s surgeries and procedures.
