Pippie's mom, dad: This was toughest year ever

PIPPIE Kruger, the toddler who was engulfed in flames after a freak accident, has become a symbol of hope for South Africa.

Nearly a year ago, Pippie's mother, Anice, was told that her daughter would die the night she arrived at Garden City Hospital's intensive care unit on New Year's Eve.

But instead the little girl - who was the first African to have a skin transplant using skin cultivated in a laboratory in the US - is now at home.

With the nearing of another New Year's Eve, the night Pippie was burnt, Anice fears reliving the moments of that terrible night and the refusal by various Limpopo hospitals to help.

"I do not want to think about it . I told Erwin [her husband] [that] December 31 and January 1 are not in my diary any more . I will take a sleeping pill and sleep it out . I am not as brave as I thought."

Despite her own concerns about her courage, Anice has become a symbol of inspiration to many.

She learned to live "minute by minute" while at Pippie's bedside . then "hour by hour" and finally "day by day".

Her faith never faltered as she watched over, the child covered in bandages and breathing with the help of a ventilator.

"My faith and complete trust in the Lord gave me strength."

From the start, treating Pippie has been a challenge. Finding a plastic surgeon was difficult as most were on leave - until Dr Ridwan Mia stepped up.

Little did he know he would conduct the first operation in South Africa with human skin cultivated in a laboratory.

Anice became a "pain in his butt", she says, as she recalls how she begged him not to use skin grafts from Pippie's undamaged skin to avoid scarring her further.

At one point Mia proposed using pig skin to cover the wounds temporarily to prevent septic shock: "I fought and begged him to wait."

Mia and Anice have become friends. She has teased the good-looking bachelor about auctioning him off as a date to raise money for Pippie's treatment.

Pippie is a firm part of her plastic surgeon Mia's life. He sees her every week. Her latest operation, on Tuesday, was to loosen scars to improve her arm movement.

Mia said the operation was successful but it will not be Pippie's last.

Dr Miles Bartlett, the ICU doctor Anice credits with saving Pippie's life, said constant treatment is typically required for burn patients who "need constant help with scarring, contractures [and] kelloid scars".

Pippie continues to need extensive rehabilitation for brain injury, he said.

Pippie, at three-and-half, cannot speak or walk, and clenches her fists and points her feet, common signs of brain damage. Anice is delighted that Pippie has started opening her hands.

"I know Pippie. I know she will be perfect. If a doctor can't handle the truth then I will prove them wrong."

Anice said it is an "awesome" to know that the family made it through the toughest year of their lives. "I am proud of my family . to go through something like this and still be so strong."

"We're over the worst ," Erwin said.