Three-year-old braveheart
Three-year-old suffers from at least four birth defects and he needs help.
Being a child is usually the best time of one’s life but for little Danté Pieterse, 3, life is an uphill battle.
Danté, son of Antonie and Charlene Pieterse suffers from several birth defects, causing him not to be able to walk. He crawls around on his arms.
Danté, who weighed a healthy 4,7kg at birth, was born with the condition known as myelomeningocele, a defect that occurs mostly in boys.
Before birth his backbone, spinal cord and the structure they float in – the spinal canal – did not form or close normally. This caused him to be paralysed from the hip down.
Danté has clubfeet – his feet are deformed to the extent that he cannot place the soles of his feet flat on the ground. The exact cause of condition is unknown, but in some cases clubfoot can be associated with other abnormalities such as spina bifida, which is similar to myelomeningocele.
Danté has hydrocephalus, which means the clear fluid that normally surrounds the brain and spinal cord builds up excessively inside the skull. He also has hernias on both sides of his pubic bone that were the result of soft tissue bulging through the wall of the abdomen at the groin because of his abdomen muscles being too weak.
The tests and sonar screenings done during Charlene’s pregnancy showed no abnormalities in their unborn baby. Antonie said this is rare, because this is when doctors normally would pick up defects. Most women then have the choice either to keep the baby or abort it.
Charlene said despite all this Danté is a very intelligent child and has no mental defects. He and his seven-year-old brother Dylan are extremely close. They constantly play, rolling around on the carpet. At night Danté asks Dylan to rub his back.
Danté will wear nappies for the rest of his life and these costs lay heavily on his parents’ shoulders. The tube through which the fluid is drained from his brain needs to be replaced every two years. Costs to reconstruct Danté’s feet are almost R24 000.
Andries Potgieter and Kleina Erasmus from Helping Hands in Dennydale paid the family a visit recently. They told the Pieterse family they were going to assist them in bettering Danté’s life by collecting donations and
food, but also getting him a wheelchair to make him more mobile.
Any help from the community would be appreciated. If you are able to assist, please contact Kleina Erasmus from Helping Hands and Aw – Doné Centre on 079 552 5137.
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