The day 24-year-old Michael Mahlangu, who was born with a rare birth defect, has been waiting for has finally arrived.
Today (Sunday, May 28), Mahlangu – who has the Pierre Robin sequence, a condition characterised by an underdeveloped jaw, a displacement of the tongue and upper airway obstruction – will be admitted to the University of Pretoria (UP) Oral and Dental Hospital to remove the remaining joint that was inserted to
reconstruct his jaws.
He has been waiting since 2019 for the surgery to mend complications resulting from another operation conducted in 2017 by the same institution.
His surgery will be conducted on Wednesday (May 31).
Sunday World published his plight on April 9, highlighting his years of struggle with pain, discomfort, debilitating headaches, and oozing puss, which forced him to drop out of his engineering studies at the Ekurhuleni West TVET College.
He said each time he went to the hospital, he would be admitted for a few days and then given antibiotics.
Mahlangu’s parents Paulus and Evah Mahlangu had given up hope that their son would have a successful operation. “Each operation brought its own set of challenges so much so that in 2011 I asked the doctors to stop operating on my son,” said Evah.
“They waited until 2012 when he could consent to do another operation to perform another one. Michael has always been hopeful that one day he will live a normal life,” she said.
“I just wish they would remove the joint.”
The family is from Sehlakwane village in Limpopo and Michael lives with his elder sister Beulah in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni.
“I would love to be with my son for his surgery, but we don’t have the funds for me travel. We are trying as family to put together some money so that I can come to Gauteng, said Paulus.
Mahlangu has had multiple operations since he was an infant, including in 2012 and 2018.
He said the operation in 2012 was not a success. The 2017 operation was to reconstruct his jaws. He said two joints were inserted on both cheeks.
After the operation he could breathe on his own without the assistance of the tracheotomy and his speech improved.
“But I developed other challenges after the operation. I had puss coming out on both sides of my cheeks,” he said.
In 2018, Mahlangu had yet another operation to remove the joint on his left cheek.
“The oozing stopped on the left side. The hospital said I would undergo another operation to remove the joint on the right.”
He has been waiting for the operation to remove the joint on his right cheek since then.
“There was a team of about 11 medical professionals who were involved in the operation in 2018,” said Mahlangu.
Prof Mzubanzi Mabongo, the head of department for the maxillofacial and oral surgery at UP’s Oral and Dental Hospital, earlier confirmed that Mahlangu had been a patient since 1998.
He also said the hospital would contact Mahlangu for an appointment date.
After Sunday World published Mahlangu’s plight on April 9, the hospital called Mahlangu to give him an appointment date for May 17. In the same week, the hospital’s complaints manager asked him to write a formal complaint and for a meeting on May 15.
“On May 15, we had a discussion about my complaint, and they also took blood samples and samples of the puss for tests.”
“On May 17, I had a CT [computed tomography] scan done,” he said. “What they found in the scan was that the joint had moved from its place and was now sitting on top of the skull and the screws were untying,” he said.
On May 19, he was given the date for the surgery.
“I can only sleep on my left side. I cannot sleep on my back because there’s a risk of swallowing my tongue,” he said.
“Should it happen that I accidentally sleep on the right side, the left side of my head swells,” he said.
Mahlangu – who said he had accepted that he looked different and that he drew attention everywhere he went because of his facial deformities – said the headaches and the puss had made his life unbearable.
“I cannot go to the supermarket or places where food is sold because of the puss,” he said.
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