Miracle as Mdantsane boy in coma shows signs of recovery
A BOY of five who woke up from a coma two weeks ago after being brutally attacked and left for dead in December, has shown signs of “improvement”.
“Hospital staff are calling him a miracle child,” the boy’s mother, Zanele Makeleni, said this week.
“His beautiful eyes are now open and doctors are able to see his cute smile and dimples.”
However, both Makeleni and the specialist neurosurgeon treating Lathitha warned that it was too early to say what his chances of a full recovery would be.
Lathitha was admitted to hospital after he was allegedly attacked by Daluxolo Nyovane on the morning of December 28 while playing with a group of friends in the road outside his Mdantsane NU3 home.
It is not clear at this stage what prompted the attack but Nyovane, who may be mentally ill, is alleged to have walked up to Lathitha and grabbed him around the throat before lifting the youngster off the ground and slamming him head first into the tarred road.
A neighbour’s scream alerted Makeleni and her sister Linda Makeleni to the incident.
Lathitha was immediately rushed to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital by a passing motorist and later transferred to Frere Hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit.
On January 10 he was transferred to Life Beacon Bay Hospital and has been there ever since.
“He is recovering Makeleni said.
“He is unable to walk or talk but very well,” he is able to move left and right. His memory is coming back because when I play his songs on my phone he recognises them and makes a happy face.”
She said it was not clear how much of his vision had returned.
“When I move my hand left or right and ask him to touch it, he reaches in the right direction so we are not sure if he can see properly or is seeing the shadow – only he knows.
“He is in good hands although it is still too early to make any pronouncement of a full recovery,” Makeleni said.
Lathitha’s doctor, Dr Deon le Roux, said: “Lathitha has suffered serious injury. Although he has shown some improvement, it is not possible, at this stage, to say what the final outcome will be.”
Nyovane, who was arrested the same day the attack took place, was charged with attempted murder.
When he made his second court appearance in the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court last Friday Magistrate Joel Sesar postponed the case to February 27.
The state has launched an inquiry in terms of Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure Act to determine if Nyovane is capable of understanding the proceedings so as to make a proper defence.
Commenting on the process, police spokesman Captain Nkosikho Mzuku said: “The accused is in the hospital section of the West Bank prison. The investigating officer on the case has already organised a bed for him in Fort England psychiatric hospital in Grahamstown. He is waiting for the availability of the bed at the hospital.” —