Personal message

SeanBack Ground

 Sean and Carol Cunniff had a successful School Transport Service.  With Covid they lost everything.  The car that was left was stolen on the 10 July 2021.

 SThey have in the meantime taken odd jobs just to keep afloat.  Carol cleans houses and do admin or look after peoples houses and pets.  She has applied positions, but unsuccessful.

Sean took a position, as a casual day labourer at a Construction Company.  Started on the 20/03/2023.  There was an accident on the 22/03/2023.  His task involved getting onto scaffolding. The scaffolding collapsed and Sean fell about 4-5 m to the ground.  There wasn’t any safety gear and other protection.  This happened in Menlyn Maine Old Time Italy Restaurant.  Construction Company didn’t give  any protective gear and objecting to, he was told if he didn’t want to work then he must leave.  He decided to stay as he needed money. After the accident the company also broke off all contact with him and doesn’t take any responsibility.

As luck would have it with the fall was a clean fall and he missed the tables and chairs of the restaurant. He fell to the ground and badly broke his right ankle. 

He was rushed through to Helen Joseph Hospital casualty where he spent a full day before they admitted him, because there weren’t any beds.  He was left there without food or water and he is a diabetic patient. 

On the 24th of February 2023 he was taken into operation theatre. the fragments are still inside, but with the fall the bones broke and moved up.  They reset the bones and did a delta X fix.  This simply means steel pins was fixed to his leg, to try and stabilize the leg and ankle.  He was in hospital until 31 March 2023.  They tried to see if the swelling would go down.

On  29/03/2023 he went in for a 2nd, 2 hour operation. They inserted steel plates, pins and screws into the ankle.   He was discharged on the 31st of March 2023, with excruciating pain.  He informed the doctors, but they said it will subside eventually. 

He walked with severe pain, and continued going back to inform them, but was just given pain meds and eventually it was found in June of 2023, that there was a severe infection in the around. He was send home with meds.  Back and forth he was admitted again the last week of September 2023.

The infection spread through the leg, the plates, pins and screws tore away from the bones.  He was taken into theatre on the 11 of October 2023, where all the it was removed.  They put his ankle in a cast and he told them repeatedly that there was a problem with the cast.  When they eventually removed the cast there was a septic whole under his foot.   Since then, he has been living with severe pain and also a wound that is struggling to heal because of the place where it is situated and also the fact that he is a diabetic.  He also struggles to walk, using crutches, as the wound is on a pressure point.

He was told that he should come back on 12/02/2023, deciding what to do, mentioning that they might break the ankle again and try resetting the whole thing, mentioning  a waiting period for 18- 24 months.  We fear that infection might be a problem & him being diabetic, we are scared  of infection/ Cangareen/amputation.  They keep on changing the dates and with uber rides and the files and the cost of the hospital being R100 just to get the file, just to be told that they must come back in a month or so.  This is really frustrating and they are struggling financially. This ankle is painful, the skin burst and the foot is scew because of the negligent of the hospital. They are in Roodepoort Region at a friend’s house at the moment.

Please find it in your heart to help. Even if it is just with a R50 or R100 

God bless.

sean Cunniff