Little Neyamiah with her mother, Surena. Image via Facebook @Sunera James.
Load shedding nightmare: Neyamiah’s parents ‘trying to get by’
Almost three weeks after 3-year-old Neyamiah died after her oxygen machine failed due to load shedding, her parents are “trying to get by.”
Little Neyamiah with her mother, Surena. Image via Facebook @Sunera James.
While load shedding continues to cause havoc throughout the country, little Neyamiah Eaton’s parents are still trying to come to terms with her tragic death. The three-year-old died after her oxygen machine failed due to load shedding.
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‘MY HEART IS BROKEN. MY CHILD IS GONE’: PARENTS OPEN UP AFTER 3-YEAR-OLD’S DEATH
Since her tragic death on 25 May, little Neyamiah Eaton’s parents, Sunera and Curwyn Eaton, are still trying to come to terms with their daughter’s death. At only three years old, little Neyamiah James from Johannesburg died in her mother’s arms after her oxygen machine switched off during load shedding.
In an interview with Huisgenoot, Surena, and Curwyn opened up about the tragic day that changed their lives forever.
Little Neyamiah James suffered from a rare form of neurodevelopmental disorder called Woree Syndrome. The condition features drug-resistant epilepsy and global developmental delay, the publication reports.
To help their daughter cope with everyday life, her bedroom was fitted with a powered medical device that compressed oxygen from the surrounding air and pumped it to her under pressure. The publication reports that there is also a portable oxygen cylinder as backup, and the house has a power inverter with a strong battery to keep the device running in the case of load shedding.
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THE FAMILY HAD BACKUP SYSTEMS AND PLANS
At the time of her death, the suburb of Bromhof, where the family stays, was crippled under load shedding. So much so that their inverter’s batteries never fully recharged and couldn’t supply the oxygen device in her room with the needed power. And then there were the times when the power just never came back on.
“It was a constant nightmare having to phone family in other areas to check if they had power because my lights weren’t on yet.”
“Most days, I would have to put my child in the car and drive to my mom to plug the concentrator in so that I didn’t have to use the oxygen cylinder because I needed it for worst-case scenarios,” Surena told News24 at the time.
THAT FRIGHTFUL DAY
On the morning of her death, Surena noticed that Neyamiah struggled to breathe. As there was load shedding and unscheduled maintenance by City Power, the inverter keeping Neyamiah’s breathing machine on ran out of charge, the Randburg Sun reports. Surena opted to use the reserve oxygen cylinder but quickly realised that they needed more oxygen. They rushed to the hospital while Surena held Neyamiah in her arms, still on the reserve oxygen bottle they had.
“While I was driving, her mother started crying and said, ‘Oh, she’s turning gray. . . Now it doesn’t look like she’s breathing,’ ” Curwyn told Huisgenoot.
“The hospital tried for 20 minutes to revive her. But yes, I think it was too late,” he added. The couple is still traumatised and struggling to get to grips with their daughter’s death.
“We cannot live properly because of this on-off load shedding; our life must revolve around this nonsense. My heart is broken. My child is gone,” Surena says.
“Right now, we’re just trying to get by; we’re just trying to stay busy. Everyone deserves something better than what happened to us, “Curwyn adds.
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