Moemedi Maphanyane, the miracle boy has died

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Wednesday August 18, 2010 00:00

 

Maphanyane then going on seven was diagnosed with acute kidney and liver failure. A public campaign for a kidney donor and other assistance then ensued. It was a miracle when his mother, whose blood type matched his, was found to have three kidneys instead of the usual two. The operation to give the boy a normal life was done at Carlifornia's Stanford University, located in Palo Alto.

' He has been well and was recently given a clean bill of health. However on May 25 he got food poisoning after eating a pie,' his mother, Joyce Gosata Maphanyane, told Mmegi. He was subsequently diagnosed with jaundice, a yellowing of the eyes and skin, often a sign that a person's liver is malfunctioning, and treated at South Africa's Morning Side Clinic.

'The medication that he was given to kill bacteria that accumulated in his body as a result of food poisoning affected his kidney, which collapsed as a result,' said Maphanyane. Following the collapse of his kidney Maphanyane was placed on haemodialysis as his mother and sisters awaited test results for blood compatibility, which would be followed by a kidney donation from one of them.

' A decision had been reached that my son would be transferred to Bokamoso Private Hospital as they have a dialysis machine. At the same time, the doctors felt he needed to be transferred from the children's clinic to adult clinic, as he was 19.  It was as a result of that decision that he was transferred to Donald Gordon clinic,' said Maphanyane.

It was while being treated at Donald Gordon Clinic that he contracted a lung infection.

' Already his immunity was low due to the previous transplant and the treatment that he was given exacerbated his condition. He died on August 13 at midnight' said his mother.

Maphanyane's corpse will arrive home on Wednesday and will lie at Lynn's Funeral Parlour before being taken to his home village of Serowe.

'A memorial Service will be held at our house at Nkoyaphiri in Mogoditshane on Friday. He will be buried in Serowe on Saturday at Seretse cemetery,' said Maphanyane.