Ashley Thaba, an American mother, has written a book ‘Conquering the Giants’, narrating her traumatic ordeal of the negligence of doctors that resulted in her baby, Caleb Thaba, missing significant parts of his brain.
In this book, Thaba tells of the tragic birth of her baby boy in a private hospital in Botswana.
Narrating her ordeal, Thaba said she is deeply saddened that her child had to go through this trauma.
“The doctor used forceps, cracked my son’s skull and caused massive internal brain damage with internal bleeding,” she said.
Thaba added that “the hardest part was after the brain scans when the pediatric neurologist said, based on the scans, it was obvious that I went into labour with a healthy baby boy, but due to a doctor’s mistake, he is now permanently brain damaged”.
She had insisted that the doctor not use forceps as they have horrific stories attached to them.
She said instead of taking heed of her request, he replied with arrogance, “Maybe in America they don’t know how to use them properly, but in Africa we have the experience. It is perfectly safe.”
The baby lay in hospital for three days unable to suckle, or cry like any other baby. He was motionless.
What pained mostly is that “instead of being honest with me, the Doctor tried to cover it up by dehydrating him and slowly killing him. Thank God for mother’s intuition. On his third day, I got out of the hospital with an emergency air evacuation to South Africa.”
Thaba said upon arriving in South Africa, she was told that Caleb’s kidneys had already shut down.
“He was vomiting blood and having seizures every five minutes,” Thaba said. “He wouldn’t have made it until morning.”
Thaba arrived just in time to save her son’s life. She said the doctors were able to get Caleb back to life. However, it was too late to correct the brain damage. Thaba said he is now missing significant parts of his brain and he was given a grim prognosis by doctors that he would never walk, see or properly learn. Thaba has put pictures of the scans in her book so that people can see for themselves the obvious holes in Caleb’s brain and the dead parts.
She said her two-year-old baby’s current condition is a true miracle. With his horrific brain damage, doctors weren’t sure if he would ever see, be able to use the right side of his body, discern right from wrong, have memories and be able to concentrate.
However, he is definitely seeing and only has a slight limp on the right side that is barely noticeable.
“As for his social abilities, we won’t really be able to fully comment on that until he is older…“she said. “Every doctor he has seen since birth, in Botswana, South Africa, and the United States, take a look at his scans and then a look at him and their jaws drop! They are just amazed that a child with his brain condition is so normal! They all believe it is miraculous intervention.”
The book is being sold in Gaberone shops like, Woolworths and Choppies.
