Roseacre based mom desperate to help her mentally disabled son
Hopeless mother believes her son deserves help to free him from his pain.
Roseacre’s mother Antoinette Krog, whose son Shane (37) is mentally disabled, desperately needs a dentist to help him.
She said Shane is in pain and needs fillings in his broken teeth. However, he needs to undergo the procedure under anaesthetic.
“We are unable to help our son financially to go to a doctor. My husband is on a Sassa grant due to kidney failure caused when he had Covid-19.
“Not only is my son mentally handicapped, but he also has Axenfield-Reiger syndrome. We went to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital because his teeth broke, and he needed fillings on quite a few teeth.
They put his name on a list to do it under anaesthetic because when we took him to a dentist in Rosettenville, he had a breath-holding attack, and they would not help him further,” explained Antoinette.
She said for the past two years, they kept saying they were waiting for the list from theatre. Then they said they don’t do it under anaesthetic anymore for people over 18.
“My son is not on medication, only pain tablets for his toothache. How do they help other children worse than him? I tried finding help from various organisations and all the hospitals. Nobody can help my son, so he has to live with the toothache. He is too old for some hospitals. He is on a Sassa grant. So how does a person get help for them in these situations? It’s heartbreaking to go through a stage where, as a mother, your hands are tied, and you can’t even get a sponsor to help you,” she said.
If you want to assist, email the Southern Courier’s news editor, Lucky Thusi, on luckyt@caxton.co.za
