'Thank you for saving my life'

Krantenartikel:  The Mercury, South Africa, 24 februari 2011

After being rated as having a 10 percent chance of surviving the injuries she received in a head-on collision 10 km north of Mtunzini in August 2009, Jorijke Koelewijn had returned from Holland with her husband, Henk, to thank the doctors and nurses at the Empangeni Garden Clinic for saving her life. Her remarkable recovery is being documented for a Dutch Christian television programme that recounts events that change people's lives.

"The whole event not only changed our lives, but also saved our lives," said Henk. Jorijke spent more than six weeks in hospital after the accident and had numerous operations, but she does not remember much of the first three weeks, even missing out on celebrating her 23rd birthday. Orthopaedic surgeon Sailesh Ragoo recalls that she arrived at the hospital in a semi-comatose state with a brain contusion, punctured left lung, broken ribs on both sides, internal bleeding caused by her ruptured small intestine, four long bone fractures in both legs, and huge open wounds. "She needed a lot of surgery and was on a ventilator for the first three weeks. Added to that surgery, she developed ventilator-related pneumonia and septicaemia," said Ragoo. "Because of the trauma her body had suffered, we opted not to harvest skin from her and rather ordered graft material from the tissue bank to close her wounds." Although her parents were here, being in a foreign country and battling with communication contributed to Jorijke's becoming depressed. According to anaesthetist Sayed Naqi Taqvi, the staff had a tough time trying to get her to eat. The couple decided to return to Holland, where Jorijke's treatment continued. Henk said that once they were back home, things went from bad to worse. "She had been improving steadily every day in South Africa, but

once we were back in Holland she started deteriorating."

With skin grafts on her left thigh not healing and the onset of infection in both lower limbs, the tough decision was made to amputate her legs just below the knees. "The two areas of skin grafts on her left leg were not healing satisfactorily and we decided to move her to another hospital where the specialise in the treatment of burn wounds."said Henk. While the couple were happy to be reunited with the people who saved her life, Jorijke said it was hard to hear that she need not have lost her right leg. Ragoo believes that if he had been able to continue treating her, "we could have saved her right leg. In South Africa we do things differently, we don't only look at treating injuries, but look to the long-term outcome of the treatment."

Despite the trauma she has been through, Jorijke is positive. "I am very happy to be alive. We came back to say thanks to the doctors and staff who not only saved my life but who took care of us."