‘I just want to write my exams’

Grade 12 pupil left paralysed after river accident

A Grade 12 pupil at Max Makushe Secondary School in the Kavango East region is unable to move after hitting his head on a rock in a freak accident while swimming with friends on Tuesday, just days before his exams began.

Petrus Kandjimi (20) is receiving medical treatment in Windhoek after sustaining serious neck and spinal injuries.

Kandjimi says he wants to write his exams, but he is stressed about them and fears he may not be able to write them because of his condition.

He says he and some friends left the school hostel to go swimming that morning after classes were cancelled because no teachers were on duty that day.

He says while jumping into the water, he hit his head on a rock.
“I heard the sound of my head hitting the rock,” he says.

Kandjimi says he immediately lost the ability to move, adding that he could see his hands but could not move his body.

His friends pulled him out of the water and eventually took him to a nearby police station.

Police officers transported him to Andara District Hospital before he was transferred to Rundu for further treatment.

His mother, Christine Kandongo, says the family is concerned about the financial burden of his recovery, including the possibility of needing a wheelchair.

“He might need a wheelchair, and we don’t have the funds for all that. We will need financial assistance with that,” she says.

Kandongo is appealing to members of the public and the education sector to assist them with the costs associated with Kandjimi’s care and recovery.

The school’s principal, Godfried Mukata, says pupils were under the supervision of hostel staff on the day of the incident, despite teachers attending an awards ceremony.

“We arranged for these pupils, all of them, to remain in the hostel. They must stay in the hostel, not move out,” Mukata says.

He says the pupils jumped over the hostel wall after lunch and went swimming, where the incident happened.
“As we are told, that’s exactly what happened,” he says

A physiotherapist who spoke on condition of anonymity at a local hospital says the severity of a spinal cord injury and its effects can only be determined through a proper medical assessment.

“When we see a spinal cord injury patient, there is a specific test we do, which is the ASIA scale test. In this test, we test a lot of things.

You need to test motor function, which is the ability to move your body, and sensory function, which is the ability to feel heat, pressure, pain and cold,” she says.

The physiotherapist explains that spinal cord injuries vary in severity, ranging from bruising and swelling to a complete severing of the spinal cord.

“In some cases, the injury can be worse, where your whole spinal cord is severed, which means it is cut, or it can just be that it is a bit bruised or inflamed,” she says.

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