As he was busy boiling water to make tea for his mother and her friend, one of his sisters came in rushing.
“Bhuti rush to the hospital, Landa had fits this morning and was rushed to hospital. Here is her mother’s phone, take it with, she was in a hurry when she left and forgot it.” Nozizwe said, out of breath.
For a second or two Ncedo’s mind froze. He didn’t know who Landa was or what fits were. He just stood there still as if he had been put on pause. Nozizwe shook him violently and he snapped out of it, took the phone and started running towards the bus stop to catch a taxi back to town.
The lady at the hospital reception wasn’t very helpful. She looked as if she herself had a terrible day or had the world on her shoulders. She kept telling Ncedo to wait on the bench while she took forever to enquire about the kid from the different hospital units. After what seemed like forever, she called him and told him to go into the waiting room to join the mother of the baby in waiting for their son to come out of the operating room. She forcefully gave him the directions to the waiting room. He flew the door open to find Tlokwe’s head buried in her hands.
He shook her and gave her a warm hug. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot red from the crying.
She had misery written all over her face and looked as if she hadn’t eaten or slept in weeks. This broke Ncedo’s heart. Today was supposed to be the happiest day of his life and yet here he was in hospital with so many questions in his mind and no one to answer them. There was so much he wanted to ask Tlokwe but he chose not to, the woman looked distraught.
He held her hand and waited for whatever it was that she was waiting for. They sat silently for about an hour or so before a young male doctor came down the corridor to their direction. Tlokwe rose to her feet as she saw the man, Ncedo assumed that this must be the doctor who was seeing to their son and also stood up.
“Are you the father of the child sir?” Asked the doctor looking at Ncedo. “Yes I am sir, what is wrong with my child, he was fine just yesterday? I saw him when I came back from work. I threw him in the air and he giggled, he wouldn’t have done that if he was sick, what caused his fits?” Asked Ncedo in a panic.
“Let’s all sit down so I can explain.” said the doctor. “I am Dr Mnquma, a pediatrician in this hospital, your son was lucky to be brought in the time he came. He’s got clots in his brain which caused the fits. We have operated on him and have removed them, however we are still uncertain on what triggered the clotting. The operation went well but he is not out of the danger yet. We still have to monitor him closely.” The doc said.
The young parents heard all that was said by the doctor but nothing made sense to them. How could a baby have clots in the brain, of all babies, but theirs? They were such good citizens and went to church almost every Sunday. The only big sin they had committed was having a child out of wedlock which is something Ncedo was going to work on now that he was working.
He had promised both their families, when Tlokwe’s uncles brought her to his home to inform his family about her pregnancy, that as soon as he gets a job, he will save for lobola and marry her within a year. Though his mother had been angry at him for a few days after that, she had later told him that she was proud of him for taking responsibility of his actions, unlike his peers who went around impregnating girls and leaving them to raise the kids on their own.
They were not allowed to enter the secluded ward that the baby was being kept in for the fear of them carrying germs and bacteria that might be harmful to the recovering infant. He was in a very fragile state of health. They watched him through the window as he lay motionless on a very tiny bed with his whole head bandaged and his body connected to a lot of pipes and strings.
***
Tell us what you think: What might have caused the clots in Langa’s head? Do you think he will recover?