Young man struggles after stroke at age 12, killing eyesight and hearing

A Pretoria east young man is still struggling with severe health problems – years after he got a stroke as a 12-year-old boy.

Silverton resident Luvo Gqeza’s dreams of becoming a soccer star were dashed eight years ago, when he had a stroke triggered by a rare virus, cytomegalovirus.

Luvo (20) was born as a healthy baby boy in 2001, but things took a turn for the worse when he had the stroke in 2013.

His 40-year-old mother Luleka told Rekord that her son got the stroke while sleeping.

“One day, when he was feeling sick, he came back from school and slept. The next day, he did not wake up. When his grandmother went to wake him, she found the left side of his body had collapsed.”

Luleka said Luvo was rushed to hospital where they were told he’d had a stroke.

“They told us he lost hearing in both ears and sight in one eye.”

Luleka said she had a hard time accepting what happened and wanted a second opinion.

“My son could no longer go to school, swim or play soccer. It crushed me. In 2014, I took him to a private hospital where they found that his other eye was infected,” she said.

Despite belonging to a medical aid fund, Luleka was told the medication to clear the infection was too expensive and was not covered.

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“I then went to Steve Biko academic hospital where they accepted him and gave him the medication he needed,” she said.

Luleka said his medical report noted he was progressing after her son got four injections, but with the fifth and sixth injections his condition deteriorated and he lost sight in the second eye.

“My son accepted this new reality, but as a parent, it hit me hard emotionally. I kept on asking, ‘God why has this happened to us?’,” she said.

In 2017, Luleka said a doctor revealed Luvo had a cytomegalovirus infection that triggered his stroke.

“To this day, I do not know how he got infected with the virus,” she said.

That year, Luleka lost her job after she constantly missed work because her son was getting sick at school.

“He had anxiety and was telling teachers he was seeing things. I took him for a mental evaluation and he was cleared as healthy.”

Luvo uses hearing aids to assist him with communication as his hearing was severely damaged by the stroke.

“One hearing aid costs R10 000 and that is without the consultation fees. They last between two to three years. Unfortunately, my work conditions no longer allow me to provide that for my son,” said Luleka who is currently employed as a general worker despite qualifications in supply chain management.

Even with the hearing aids to help him communicate, Luleka said Luvo struggled to hear and communicate with others.

She appealed for the public’s help in getting a cochlear implant that could help her son’s hearing.

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

The Mediclinic info hub says the device costs about R200 000. Implantation costs are between R50 000 and R100 000.

University of Pretoria head of neurosurgery Professor Llewellyn Padayachy said strokes in children were “exceedingly rare” with around two per 100 000 children worldwide.

He said common causes of strokes in children varied from heart problems, blood disorders (sickle cell disease), infection (meningitis) and blood clotting or blood vessel diseases.

On the cytomegalovirus infection, Padayachy said it was also rare, citing American research which found that it affected 1% of live births but led to illness or disability in only a small number (10-20%).

“A stroke in a child can be fatal,” he said.

He said the infection was most common through birth.

“Mostly asymptomatic, but other symptoms described are hearing loss, jaundice, prematurity and pneumonia.”

Padayachy said parents could protect their children from the virus by maintaining proper hygiene when touching a baby, including hand washing and avoiding contact with saliva when kissing the baby.

“Certain antiviral medications have been found effective (when the virus is detected early),” he said.

He said cochlear implants were useful in certain cases of hearing loss.

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