Good Morning Angels: After three years, Lee is going to walk and work again
Lee Oosthuizen, 50, has been in pain without a functioning right hip and virtually bed-ridden since 2018.
BACKGROUND: As a lighting and events engineer, Lee has been unable to do his physical job for almost four years. This means, he has been unable to support his wife, Sonja, and their two sons financially. In fact, he’s been unable to live a productive life at all, needing the assistance of a wheelchair to get by.
It all started in November 2017, when Lee broke his hip in a freak accident while playing rugby with his sons. He ended up in a state hospital where his hip was mended with screws and pins. A few months later, he had a severe blood clot that almost ended his life. He then tripped and fell on his repaired hip, when his two boerboel dogs greeted him at the gate. The screws in his hip just snapped as the bone never grew back together. Lee is still a state patient and has been on a list for a hip-replacement ever since. His hip is not functional and he is in constant pain.
Lee created a Back-A-Buddy page and has raised R54,000 since 2019 - but this falls far short of the costs of having his hip replaced in a private facility. He reached out to Operation Healing Hands and has been treated by OHH Orthopaedic Surgeon, Prof Theo le Roux, who is also at Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
Even with the assistance of free medical treatment by the Operation Healing Hands team and the money he has raised, he's still short of another R170,000. Because his hip broke so badly, he needs a special prosthesis that costs R120,000, as well as hospital and theatre costs estimated at another R100,000. With only his wife’s small income to keep the household going, this is a financial bridge too far for this family to reach.
REQUEST FOR: Lee Oosthuizen
ANGEL 1: Prof Theo le Roux, Chairman of the Board of Operation Healing Hands
SPONSORING: Prof Le Roux has been consulting with Lee for over three years. Now, OHH has secured the sponsorship of a specialised hip-joint prosthesis for Lee, that would have cost R120,000. The OHH doctors and medical professionals will do Lee’s hip-replacement operation and rehabilitation free of charge at a private hospital within the next two weeks.
ANGEL 2: The Good Morning Angels Fund NPC
SPONSORING: The GMA Fund will donate the R50,000 still outstanding towards the hospital and theatre costs to make Lee’s operation possible!
Source: Jacaranda FM/Breakfast with Martin Bester