Fighting Chadé gets to go ‘home’
She now receives tube feeding via a tube that goes from her nose into her stomach
Six-year-old Chadé van Niekerk went for two biopsies on Thursday morning at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.
Doctors did a rectal biopsy and cut out a piece of tissue from small intestine to send away for further examination.
Her mother, Charlotte Diedericks, told EXPRESS on Friday morning that Chadé was in pain from the surgery. She gets to go home for the weekend for the first time since she was admitted to the children’s hospital.
Also read:
• Chadé’s family receives heartbreaking news
• Critically ill Chadé (6) admitted to Red Cross hospital
• Next 48 hours are critical to get dying girl (6) to Cape hospital
• Fighting six-year-old undergoes major operation to save her
• Pray with very ill girl (6) who believes Jesus will heal her
Her illness, hollow visceral myopathy (HVM), which she was diagnosed with in May last year, has spread further than was first estimated and has affected her oesophagus. She is now being fed 225ml of meal replacers every six hours through a tube.
“The doctors said they would contact us when Chadé needed to go back to hospital but for now she can receive her tube feeding at our hotel we call home for now,” said Diedericks.
Century City Hotel and Old Mutual assisted the family with accommodation after they heard the plea for help on a radio interview with KFM.
“We would like to say thank you to Ryan O’Connor from KFM who did the interview with me on April 29. The reaction and feedback were more than we expected,” said Diedericks.
“We are so thankful for everyone’s generosity. We don’t have to worry about travelling up and down for the remainder of the time we will be here. We also want to thank everyone at Red Cross Children’s Hospital for making my daughter feel so comfortable. She loves the school lessons and the pamper sessions so much.”
Diedericks was let go at her previous job due to her child being ill. She attended her CCMA case on May 5 with the help of Wings and Wishes in Port Elizabeth, who sponsored her flight to Johannesburg on May 4 and back to Cape Town the evening of May 5.
“It was an absolute waste of my time. I was very upset because they knew the case would be postponed and they didn’t even let me know. I could have been with my daughter before she went into surgery.”
Her case has been referred to the arbitration court in Johannesburg and a date will only be made available in a month’s time.
“For now I am just glad to be back with my daughter. We have a place to stay and we have each other,” Diedericks added.
