Loving Terminally Ill Mom Seeking Adoption for Her Autistic Son, 16

• Kitawa Charity is terminally ill and on palliative care because she cannot walk on her own
• She is the sole caregiver of her 16-year-old severely autistic son Luke, she constantly reminds him how much love she has for him
• Her only wish is he finds a loving home when she is no longer there to take care of him

16-year-old Luke plays with his mother’s fingers as he lays next to her, occasionally stealing glances and smiling at her.

Mom and son moments

Kitawa Charity's mom is terminally ill and cannot walk without assistance as she’s paralysed on her right side, but the innocent boy doesn’t know this. Charity constantly reminds him that she loves him very much, and he just stares at her and smiles. He has a beautiful and innocent smile.

Read also

Selfless young man buys school uniforms for children in need, plans to make Christmas brighter too

Luke is a severely autistic child. He is also non-verbal and has to be bathed, fed and placed in nappies and needs around-the-clock care.

“He doesn’t know I am in pain,” a bubbly Charity tells Briefly News in an interview at her house.

Charity is the sole provider and caregiver of her only son. Charity has generally been okay healthwise until one morning in 2018 when she was driving to work.

Life changed in a blink of an eye

She said a sharp pain pierced her chest. It was so painful she had to park on the roadside to let it pass.

“I later attended two meetings and was headed to the third one when I decided to check into a hospital and get checked. I walked myself into the facility, but was surprised to see nurses panic when they saw me,” she recalls.

Read also

Lady shares emotional story, dad stopped building to fund her education

At the triage, the nurses discovered that Charity’s blood pressure had shot up abnormally. They had her checked three times to confirm. After that, the doctors had to quickly organise for her to be moved to the main hospital in an ambulance.

It was at the main hospital that she was informed how bad the situation was.

“I was told that I had blood clots but their location was yet to be established. The next day I was sedated and later that night a clot moved to my heart (Myocardial Infraction).

"I had to undergo an emergency coronary angioplasty to removed the clot and had a stent put in. I was later put on life support in ICU then later HDU. I quickly recovered and was moved to the normal ward then discharged,” she recalls.

A week after discharge at home, Charity could not catch any sleep. Later that night, she felt yet another sharp pain at 1am. She tried to get out of bed but fell hard on the floor as one side of her body was already paralysed, yet she had not noticed.

Read also

Rachel Kolisi looks radiant as she poses next to her brand new Benz: "I'm obsessed"

She felt nauseous and tried to vomit, but her throat too was paralysed, causing her to choke on her own vomit. Charity crawled out of bed to the bathroom but collapsed in the corridor where her house help found her and called for help.

Speech loss

She was resuscitated twice and rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctors discovered that a clot had gone to her brain, and she had suffered a stroke and had lost her speech. A couple of months later, she developed difficulty breathing and had to be rushed to hospital again.

She was found to have a clot in her lungs (Pulmonary Embolism); further tests revealed that she had an autoimmune disease called Antiphospholipid syndrome, which causes the immune system to attack itself and creates blood clots which then move to attack her major organs.

Counts all her blood clots

The condition causes her body to develop clots rapidly to a point she even counted all the familiar clots in her body.

Read also

Sol Phenduka opens up about how Boity helped him overcome addiction

“I have five on my hand, one in the leg and two in the heart and one in my lungs currently,” she told Briefly News.

The ones on her hand are visible and cause her severe pain.

So far, Charity has had three heart attacks, two strokes, three pulmonary embolisms and three deep vein thromboses.

The condition is an extremely painful one; she survives on morphine. She has now been put on palliative care but is worried about her only son.

“Who will take care of him? I am afraid that no one will love him the way I love him when I am gone. If it were possible I sometimes wish I could take my son with me so I can love and protect him, all the time,” a teary Charity tells Briefly News.

She weeps at the thought of leaving her son to suffer; she worries about him but hopes that God will guide the people who will take on the responsibility of raising him.

Read also

DJ Zinhle reveals Oskido gave her R200k when she fell pregnant with Kairo

“Raising a special child is no small feat. I only ask that those who take him exercise a lot of patience with him. It is not easy but I know God will guide them,” Charity said.

To ensure that his future is well taken-care-of, Mama Luke has set up an M-change platform named ‘After I’m Gone- Supporting Luke G’ to secure his future.

The mother hopes to use the contributions to put up a trust fund for his long-term care.

Meet women dubbed angels for giving kids free palliative care

Previously, Briefly News reported that doctor Julia Ambler and Tracey Brand (a social worker) have been dubbed angels on earth by parents who have turned to them for palliative care for their ailing children.

The two Durban women have helped hundreds of children in pain over the past seven years through their NGO, Umduduzi. They have offered free palliative care to children diagnosed with terminal illnesses.

Read also

Mzansi offers Connie Ferguson love and support after tough day, “Loss doesn’t get easier, We do get stronger.”

Palliative care does not mean death

Dr Julia Ambler said there was a misconception about the help Umduduzi offers to children.

Source: Briefly News