Premature baby’s mother suffers setback
An online crown fund-raising campaign sits at nearly R92 000
The mother of Rauché Botha of Glen Marais, who was born prematurely at 26 weeks, suffered a setback on Thursday and is back in ICU.
Mari Botha (28), who suffers from Lupus, was back in theatre to stop bleeding outside her left kidney. Blood clots blocking her catheter were also removed.
Although doctors managed to temporarily stop the bleeding outside the kidney, they still need to stop the bleeding inside the kidney.
She was to be transferred to Unitas Hospital for another procedure.
Mari was readmitted to hospital on Wednesday due to an abscess that formed in the muscle where a biopsy was performed. The biopsy was done in order for doctors to determine why her kidney function was lingering at eight per cent.
According to husband Johan, Mari had been discharged from hospital on July 1 after a long medical battle after her baby girl, Rauché, was born on May 15 due to complications with the pregnancy that stemmed from Mari’s chronic Lupus condition.
Mari managed to cope at home with in-house dialysis treatments every second day for a week-and-a-half, while Rauché remained in hospital. At the time she told family she still had to get used to her dialysis routine, but that she was grateful to be home.
“I’m getting stronger every day. Please continue to pray for my kidneys as I still have pain,” Mari had said.
Johan told Express on Wednesday that on July 5 Mari was still struggling with pain and had blood in her urine. Two days later she and her husband went to casualty for a check-up and were sent home. Sadly, on Wednesday Mari was hospitalised as her pain did not ease up.
For baby Rauché, things seem to get better but nothing is for certain as her condition keeps fluctuating. She suffered from an infection in the meantime.
Johan said: “It’s difficult to tell how Rauché is doing. I can say for now that things are going well but by tonight things might change. We are blessed to know that Rauché has been stable the past week. She’s back on nutrition and receives four millilitres of food over a period of five hours.”
Since Mari is unable to breastfeed, the couple are truly thankful for the breast milk bank which has donated 1.5 litres to date, especially since donor breast milk is extremely expensive. “We’re grateful for angels like them.”
An online crowed fund-raising campaign which has been launched in the hope to raise R100 000 for the family’s medical bills, sat on nearly R92 000 on Friday.
