LIFE changed irreparably for one expat grandad three years ago as he was withdrawing money from a cash machine in San Pedro Alcantara.
He was standing at a bank machine opposite Maskom, on San Pedro’s main shopping street, around midday on August 3, 2023, when vehicle reversing out of a nearby loading bay struck him.Â
The impact cut the victim, whose name we are not revealing for privacy reasons, virtually in half, leaving him with catastrophic injuries to his legs.Â
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Emergency services rushed to the scene, and he was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in a critical condition.
For his daughter, Anita Mayne-Knezovich, her sister and the rest of the family, that first day brought unbearable dread.
“He was in a critical condition, and that day we didn’t know if he would survive,” Anita told The Olive Press.
That afternoon, surgeons chose not to take the easier route of amputating straight away.
Instead, they began what would become years of reconstructive surgery – muscle grafts, skin grafts, and an extraordinary bone reconstruction process that slowly grew new bone from his knee over many months, all in an effort to save both his legs.
The right leg was saved. Despite two and a half years of surgery, the left one could not be, and last November doctors made the difficult decision to amputate below the knee.
He received his first prosthetic this February. On August 3 this year, three years to the day, he was fitted with his final one.
Anita, her sister and her husband have cared for him around the clock throughout what Anita calls ‘this journey’.
“It has been an incredibly tough three years, not just physically but mentally too,” Anita said. “The road has been long, painful and emotional.”
While life will never be the same as it was before that day, Anita said the family hopes this new chapter – with greater independence and mobility – will help her father ‘regain some normality and enjoy life again.’
“To the bystanders who stopped to help, the staff at the nearby chemist and clinic who cared for him in those crucial first moments, the emergency services who airlifted him to hospital, and the incredible surgeons, doctors, nurses, therapists and medical teams who have looked after him over the last three years – thank you so much!” Anita said.
“We know there is still a long road ahead, especially mentally, but today we are choosing to celebrate how far he has come,” she said.
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