I WOKE & MY LEG WAS GONE

A woman from Mpumalanga is reeling, having come round from surgery to a missing limb after an op to remove a mass on her knee went horribly wrong

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

SHE was excited about going under the knife - it meant she'd finally be free of the crippling pain that had plagued her for months. Her life would go back to normal - she'd be able to wear high heels again, go horse-riding and complete the school year. But when Nontobeko Shongwe from Mpumalanga woke up from a surgery at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, she couldn't feel her leg.

“At first, I didn't think anything of it. I thought it must be the medication and pain that was making me not feel it, she tells YOU.

“I woke up a short while later and still couldn’t feel my leg so I asked the patient next to me to have look because I couldn’t sit up. ‘Your leg is gone,’ she said. I simply couldn’t believe it.” Five months after surgery, Nontobeko is struggling to accept her new reality.

“Some mornings when I wake up, just for a moment, I forget that I have only one leg now. But then as soon I try and get out of bed, it hits me again. I can’t just wake up and go. I have to grab my crutches and hobble to the bathroom. It’s a lot to get used to,” she says.

Before the surgery, the 21-year-old was an independent, carefree young woman but now she must depend on someone to help her perform daily tasks. Her hands and shoulders ache all the time because she’s not used to supporting her body when she walks, and she moves around slowly, cautious not to slip on anything.

She’s trying to stay upbeat but it’s tough, she says. “It’s not something I ever thought would happen to me. I’m angry that I don’t have my leg anymore.”