RARE MEDICAL CONDITION: Ashleigh Botha, who helped a child in distress. Picture: BRIAIN WITBOOI
ASHLEIGH Botha is no stranger to medical emergencies and is in a race against time to raise enough money for her own lifesaving surgery.
But when she saw a frantic mother and a young girl who got her leg stuck in a drainpipe at Hobie Beach on Friday, she did not think twice about helping.
“My sister Chelsea and I just went for a walk at the beach when we saw the commotion,” Botha said yesterday.
“I felt so sorry for the little girl, Phakama Notshoba, because everybody was standing around taking pictures.”
Phakama’s foot got stuck in an uncovered drain pipe at the Hobie Beach showers on Friday.
It took rescue personnel two hours to free the traumatised little girl. They had to use jackhammers to remove concrete and cut off a section of the drainpipe.
“Her mom, Memento, was frantic and she had three other children, aged 3, 6 and 10 with her. The children were also upset and getting difficult,” Botha said.
“We offered to look after the kids so that the mom could be with her little girl who was in pain.”
“Shame, the little boy was very worried about his sister.”
She said when rescue personnel managed to free the girl by removing the section of pipe her leg was stuck in, she and Chelsea offered to drive Notshoba’s car and children to the hospital.
They left the hospital after 6pm when doctors managed to remove the child’s leg from the pipe.
“I just thought that if I was in a similar situation, I would want someone to help me. I was very happy to help. The little girl’s mom was very grateful.”
Phakama, 8, was discharged from St George’s at the weekend.
Botha was diagnosed with a rare medical condition called timal fibromuscular dysplasia, after suffering for four years with debilitating and painful symptoms.
It is an extremely rare disease – she is the only person known to have it in South Africa – which causes abnormal cellular growth in the big and medium arteries.
The cells grow until the arteries are completely blocked off.
Botha, of Seaview, is trying to raise R1.8-million for bypass surgery in the US to save her life.
“The graft my doctor did in Johannesburg to give us more time is becoming very thin and we fear that it can burst,” she said.
-Estelle Ellis
TRAUMATIC: MementoNotshoba comforts her
daughter Phakama. Picture: FREDLIN ADRIAAN
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