Doctors who operated on 9-year-old Lelitha Jantjies to give her a new look after the family’s pit bull tore her face to pieces in Friemersheim outside of Mossel Bay, said it was a privilege to make a difference.
Jantjies was attacked in September last year, leaving scar tissue across her face.
The driving force behind the free surgery to remove the appearance of her scarring was Dr Ansua Steyn-Ahlstrom, an aesthetic practitioner in George.
She said the surgical procedure at Advanced Health in Knysna went well and lasted three hours.
“We operated on Lelitha on Monday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be helped by Dr Marshall Murdoch, a plastic surgeon, and Dr Catharine Knights who is an anaesthetist,” she said.
Dr Steyn-Ahlstrom said she was introduced to Jantjies by NuSkinnovation in George. “They are a laser company and they do laser treatments.
They phoned and asked if I would be able to help Lelitha. She was bitten by her family's pit bull a year ago.
The idea was to do laser on her scars, and I was to help with some numbing injections while they do the laser. But when I first met Lelitha on Tuesday last week I fell in love with her.
“I have a child exactly the same age as her. I think it struck a nerve with the mother in me. Then I spoke to the plastic surgeon I work with, and I told him I wanted to help her. My plan was to do one scar at a time, and he said the best thing would be to make her sleep and we do all her face at once.
“I spoke with the Advanced Health Hospital in Knysna to see if something like this would be a possibility. We were lucky enough to get some time in the theatre as the plastic surgeon is fully booked until December,” she said.
Dr Steyn-Ahlstrom, who has been practising as an aesthetic practitioner for 16 years and a doctor for 20 years, said it was a privilege to be part of the surgical team. Alet Coetzee of NuSkinnovation George said they came to know of Lelitha and her story through her mother.
“We received a message from Lelitha’s mother, a month and a half ago saying she heard about us on Facebook and was looking for help for her little daughter who was bitten by a dog. We saw her pictures and we really wanted to help her.
“Our director Chantel van der Walt suggested we do this pro bono and help her as far as we can. She came in and we did a test part, and she did really well. We put some numbing cream on her and it was painful, understandably as she is very young. Then I reached out to Dr Ansua for assistance.
“She found all these amazing people to help her with her scars much quicker and with much better results.
There are a few scars left, as soon as her stitches come down we will be able to assist her with her healing process with our fotona laser systems. It’s been a privilege to help the family, and they deserve it,” she said.
Ahisa Jantjies said her daughter was 8 years old when the incident happened.
“Our dog Jordan was not an aggressive dog at all. He was not abused. As the SPCA says there was just something that day, what it was we don't know. There was not one moment of a dog that was ruthless. That's something I asked myself when I picked up Lelitha and he just sat there. I did not struggle to get Jordan off from Lelitha that day. He just sat in the corner and made a sound like a dog crying. It's an episode in our lives we'd rather forget, it has cost us as a family a lot. We are just trying to forget and we're trying to make peace,” she said.
The mother thanked the Doctors for their support.
Cape Times