North dad getting better after fishing trip injury
“Frik is now breathing on his own again.”
A father of six from Kameeldrift is recovering well in hospital after getting a cut on his leg last month, which resulted in a dangerous blood infection.
The 39-year-old Frederick (Frik) Nel didn’t think much of the small cut, after he slipped and cut his leg on a rock while he was out fishing at Hartbeespoort dam.
But after the “small injury” he sustained on 14 March, Frik was admitted to hospital with a dangerous infection that landed him in the intensive care unit of the Zuid-Afrikaans hospital.
Originally, he was admitted to a state hospital but due to a shortage of beds, he was rushed to the private hospital instead.
Frik’s condition seemed dire and being a diabetic made the timeline in his treatment that much more pressing.
On Tuesday afternoon, after three weeks in hospital, his wife Roelien Steenberg finally got some good news.
“The pipes are out and he is breathing on his own again,” an elated Roelien told Rekord.
Roelien said Frik was recovering well now that he was breathing on his own without the aid of machines.
After Frik was admitted to the intensive care unit, he was also put in an induced coma, due to the high blood infection count.
During the Easter weekend, he was brought out of the coma again.
Roelien said doctors were still doing tests to determine what kind of bacteria had caused his infection.
During Frik’s fishing trip, he had apparently cut his leg on a rock whilst he was getting his fishing line out of the dam. He refused to go see a doctor.
Despite his recent improvement in the hospital, the family was now worried about the massive hospital bill still accumulating.
Without medical aid, the family must raise more than R280 000 to cover the rising hospital costs.
Roelien and family were using social media platforms and even started a BackaBuddy fundraising campaign to gather any donations that could help cover the costs.
Friends of the family even donated a motorbike to be sold to cover the costs.
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