West woman without kidneys “doing well”
Except for the fact that Van Tonder contracted Covid-19 last week, while she was in ICU, doctors still could not diagnose what exactly was wrong with her, said a family spokesperson.
A Pretoria West woman who was born without kidneys and has been in the hospital for about three months is doing better according to her family.
Angelique Seymour van Tonder of Mountain View has already suffered a number of setbacks as doctors continued to try and figure out what exactly was wrong with her.
Except for the fact that Van Tonder contracted Covid-19 last week, while she was in ICU, doctors still could not diagnose what exactly was wrong with her, said family spokesperson, Arnél Mulder.
“We do not know what is wrong with her exactly,” said Mulder.
“Doctors are, however, treating her according to what they find and according to her pain levels.”
This week, Mulder said while Van Tonder was still in hospital, she was looking better than last week.
“She is more awake and is hungry a lot and the doctor said that since Monday, she was doing much better,” she said.
“The ventilator is also not set at 100% anymore.
“Friday will mark her second wedding anniversary.”
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Last week, on 13 July, Mulder said Van Tonder had another setback.
“The previous week everything looked very positive – she was taken off the ventilator and doctors even spoke about moving her back to a normal ward,” she said.
“However, everything changed on that Friday and Saturday. She had to go back on the ventilator and they put the feeding tube back in.
“There was too little oxygen in her blood. Her blood pressure would drop dangerously low and then again jump dangerously high.”
Mulder said it was a very difficult time for the family and Van Tonder’s mother was especially struggling to cope with the situation.
“Any mom will know it’s not easy to be on that seesaw,” she said.
“You stand outside and cannot lessen the pain for your child.”
Mulder said Van Tonder was also not allowed to get any visitors at the moment.
“We believe this is also making things worse,” she said.
“She is a people person and does not like to be alone.
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“Angelique does not know what is happening out here. She does not know of lockdown. She’s been in the ICU since the beginning of lockdown. There is no day and night in ICU, it’s always day.”
Van Tonder’s setback came as a shock as she was scheduled to undergo a kidney transplant in May.
She would have received the kidney from her husband, Nico.
When Van Tonder was born, doctors had little hope that she would survive.
Mulder said it was indeed possible to survive without kidneys.
“That’s why she’s on dialysis,” she said.
“Angie is our miracle child. She survived, though doctors had little hope.”
Mulder said since Angelique was born, she has constantly moved between her home and hospital.
By 2000, Angelique had gained enough weight for doctors to insert tubes to enable dialysis.
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A kidney transplant also became a possibility later, but the suitable donor cancelled shortly before surgery.
There was light at the end of the tunnel when it was discovered in 2018, that Nico could be a potential donor for her.
The process was cut short when doctors discovered cancer cells in Angelique’s body last year.
“They were doing the last set of tests that would determine if Angelique could get the kidney,” Mulder said at the time.
Angelique received the news last year June, that she was cancer-free and the tests could continue.
Nico then had to undergo a set of tests to see if he would be a suitable donor for Angelique.
She also had to have a set of tests done.
All their tests came back positive.
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