Help save Reece’s leg

Following a horrific motorcycle accident just outside their home on July 1, Reece Classens’ mother is reaching out to the public to help her son receive critical medical care to save his leg.

Verona, Reece’s mother, explained that on the night of the accident, he hit a tree right outside their property. She was with him within seconds and found him curled up in a foetal position in the middle of the road. The family claimed that just before the collision they heard the loud noise of an engine revving. Reece doesn’t remember much of the accident, so it’s not clear whether he was run off the road.

“Reece went out to the shop and was on his way back when he was in the accident. It was during load-shedding, so it was very dark outside,” Verona explained, “Eleven months ago I lost my job of 12 years, so we unfortunately do not have medical aid.”

Reece was rushed to the nearest government hospital where he underwent surgery for his multiple injuries, including a ruptured bowel, neck fractures, broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and femur, and open trauma breaks in his tibia and fibula.

Verona explained that all was well during the seven days he spent in ICU, but as soon as he was moved to a high-care cubicle his condition started going downhill.

“The staff had a terrible attitude. They would shut his door so they wouldn’t be able to hear him call. For five days he didn’t receive any food or tea. It took three days before they changed his wound dressing because the pus had turned green and began to smell. He tried to clean his own wounds while calling me at 01:00. Before she realised I was on the phone listening, I overheard the sister yelling at him and refusing to assist,” elaborated Verona.

“Amazingly, she managed to find the time and bandages on a moment’s notice. Additionally, they weren’t consistently administering his IV antibiotic drip, but they wrote in his file that his dressings were being changed and his drip was fixed although it was not the case. They also neglected to check his sepsis levels for five days. They did it only after I said I was going to discharge him myself, and then found his level to be 84.7 when it was supposed to be below three.”

Reece appeared to be wasting away, according to Verona, who noted that this was a very traumatic experience for them. She was denied access to any reports, documents, or copies because Reece’s leaving the hospital was regarded as voluntary discharge. At that point they were still unaware of the problem with his leg.

His girlfriend’s father paid for him to be admitted to a care facility for the elderly in Pretoria where he received the necessary wound care for a month.

Once the wounds were more manageable he was taken to an orthopaedic surgeon for a check-up, who requested X-rays and a bone swab test. “It was the first time we saw an X-ray of his injured leg. His femur was angulated but touching, his tibula was not touching, and his fibula still had two breaks. His bone swab test came back positive for infection,” explained Verona.

The family was told that Reece needed emergency surgery because of the infection but heard that the government hospitals in Pretoria weren’t much better, and that it could be disastrous if his leg was not treated properly.

“I brought him back to Johannesburg and started a crowdfunding page right away. I called about 15 orthopaedic surgeons, but not one of them wanted to look at Reece’s leg when I mentioned infection, government hospital, and fundraising.

“Google eventually led me to a very helpful doctor at Life Flora hospital. We went to see him, and he explained the various scenarios to us. Every scenario necessitates an operation,” added Verona.

The various scenarios are determined by among other whether or not they are able to keep the infection under control for the time being. This means they have a little more time to raise funds, as they need approximately R310 000, which excludes X-rays and blood tests.

Reece has returned home, and his wounds have started to heal. The hole has closed, but the doctor explained that it will remain a constant seepage sinus – as they call it.

Please visit Reece’s BackaBuddy page https://www.backabuddy.co.za/reece-classes and donate to his medical expenses to help save his leg.