A four-year-old boy from Tzaneen is fighting for his life in a Pretoria hospital after contracting Tuberculous (TB) Meningitis. LJ Konig’s father, Nate, told the Herald that LJ fell ill about five weeks ago. 

“Because we do not have medical aid, we took him to Letaba Hospital, where he was diagnosed with respiratory tract infection. After a week he was still ill and we took him to a local doctor who again diagnosed him with respiratory tract infection.” 

Nate says his mother-in-law from Pretoria offered to look after LJ since he and his wife, Susan, both worked.

 “In Pretoria, he had a toothache and it was decided that the tooth should be extracted under sedation. The doctor however said he wants a pediatrician to examine him. The pediatrician diagnosed meningitis, but it was unclear what kind of meningitis he had.” 

On Thursday, September 16, two weeks after he first fell ill, he was admitted to Mediclinic Medforum in Pretoria and was given intravenous antibiotics for what the doctors thought was bacterial meningitis. He was given a lumber puncture, however, test results were inconclusive. 

About ten days ago he started getting seizures and was admitted to ICU where he has been ever since. 

“He was sedated with a ventilator. They eventually had to operate on him and put a drain into his brain to drain the cerebral fluid from his brain to relieve some of the pressure and swelling.” 

The doctors sent the fluid for more testing and again the diagnosis was inconclusive. On Sunday, October 3, the doctors operated on him again and removed the external drain pipe and replaced it with a shunt which drains the cerebral fluid back into his body. This operation lasted five hours. 

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“LJ is back on a ventilator and back in ICU. The doctors say that once the shunt is in they will reassess LJ’s condition in a few days’ time and are hopeful that if another CT scan reveals that the swelling has gone down and the fluid is less, they can move him to a general ward,” says Nate. 

Meanwhile, on Monday, they have finally been able to get a diagnosis which is Tuberculous Meningitis. Nate told Herald it is unclear where he contracted the disease. 

“Doctors told us that it must be from someone in close contact,” he said. 

According to Nikki Preece, Nate’s employer, the doctor suspects that LJ’s brain stem was damaged due to the swelling and fluid and it sounds as if he will need to be put into rehab to teach him to walk again when he is discharged from the hospital. 

“Obviously there are no rehab facilities in the Tzaneen area and LJ will have to remain in Pretoria for an undisclosed period of time. “Our company has so far managed to pay some of the bills, however, this family is in dire need of assistance. Nate is a farm manager for us in the Tzaneen area where he is a stockman for two of our chicken broiler farms. 

He took two weeks leave to be with his son in Medforum where he spent every night and day with LJ until LJ was moved to ICU after he started getting seizures. “Now the family is only allowed to sit with him during the day in ICU and may not sleep there. 

Nate and his young daughter Ané have returned to the farm and LJ’s mother (who has since been retrenched from her own employment) and grandmother are with him in Pretoria. 

“But the burden of the hospital bills is a huge worry for Nate and the family,” said Nikki. On Tuesday, at the time of going to print, the hospital bill already stood at R327 000. Adding to this are bills for CT scans, MRI scans and theater. 

The ICU amounts to between R17 000 and R19 000 per day and the ventilator which he used for more than a week is R7 000 per day. 

“LJ’s grandmother has started a Back a Buddy fund on Facebook – so the family is really trying to get the money together and have even given out Mediclinic Medforum’s banking details to everyone in our area, including LJ’s nursery school and church – with LJ’s reference for anyone to pay directly into the hospital account,” Nikki said. 

People who want to contribute can contact Nate on 078 707 0315 or Nikki on 082 344 4877.