There is hope for Ziyaad George, 6, to run and play again after he was injured in gang crossfire in Hanover Park last month.
|||Cape Town - Ther is hope for Ziyaad George, 6, to run and play again after he was injured in gang crossfire in Hanover Park last month.
A bullet passed through Ziyaad’s left arm and left side and stopped at his spinal chord.
The little boy was playing outside his home in Lomond Court on a Sunday morning when the incident happened.
He was discharged yesterday from hospital and transferred to a rehabilitation centre.
His mother, Fazlin George, said he is doing very well: “He talks a lot and laughs a lot and is doing very well. Red Cross is a very good hospital.”
George added that Ziyaad would be receiving physiotherapy every day to help his left leg, which he has not been able to move since the shooting.
“He can at least move his toes and doctors say that it’s a good sign and that he would be able to walk; that’s why he needs to go for rehabilitation at the Western Province Rehabilitation Centre,” she said.
The unemployed mother said it would be difficult to visit Ziyaad every day because travelling to Mitchells Plain and back would be very costly.
“He is happy when I am around, but it will be difficult to visit him. His father and I are unemployed.”
George added that Ziyaad did not talk about the shooting at all.
“For now he just seems happy and maybe he will talk about it later.”
Lauren O’Connor-May, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s communications officer, said it was too soon to tell though how much mobility Ziyaad would have.
“The six-year-old gunshot victim has been discharged to a rehabilitation centre.
“He is in a stable condition,” O’Connor-May said. “It is too soon to tell how much mobility the boy will have once the swelling subsides.
“The bullet caused partial neurological damage and there is still a lot of swelling around the boy’s spinal cord.”
natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za
Cape Argus