Pippie awake and off ventilator

2012-06-23 11:02

Pippie Kruger kort nadat sy gisteroggend wakker geword het in die Netcare-Garden City-hospitaal in Johannesburg. Foto: Dr. Ridwan Mia

Johannesburg - Limpopo toddler Pippie Kruger is awake after undergoing a skin graft operation this week, The Saturday Star reported.

"So far, so good," Ridwan Mia, her doctor at Johannesburg's Garden City Clinic, is reported to have said after the three-year-old burn victim's bandages were removed for the first time earlier this week and her dressings cleaned.

Her body had been tightly bandaged since the operation on Monday so as not to disturb the skin grafts, which were grown in a laboratory in the United States using skin taken from her groin.

Kruger was taken off her ventilator on Friday morning. She had been placed in a medically-induced coma.

"One hyperactive three-year-old coming up. Now you can see she is frustrated," her mother, Anice, 27, told the newspaper.

Her mother said she could see the veins attaching to the new skin.

"It looks like someone has slapped on Glad Wrap."

Anice said she could see her daughter's mouth moving but no sound was coming out yet.

"I know the angels are talking to her and keeping her entertained."

The next step for Kruger would be to undergo intensive physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. This process would last for around six months.

Meanwhile, Pippie's father, Erwin, said his lawyers were preparing a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the gel firelighter which exploded at a New Years braai and caused 80 percent of her body to be burned.

"Other people have phoned to tell me how they have been hurt by the same gel firelighter."

- SAPA