Doctor swaps private hospital job to give amputees a new lease on life

When Sarah Whitehead, a medical doctor with a physical disability in Cape Town, left her job at a private hospital she decided to take her future — and that of many others with disabilities — into her own hands.

She and Jayson Chin recently launched Zimele (Xhosa for independence), a non-profit organisation that aims to help amputees from disadvantaged backgrounds live as independent a life as possible.

The first cohort of beneficiaries was made up of four people, three of whom had lost one limb and one double amputee.

Noxolo Langa, 38, from Cape Town is one of the people whose lives has been changed by Whitehead and Chin’s determination to help amputees live their fullest life in the context of a public health system that lacks resources.

Speaking to TimesLIVE premium, Whitehead described herself as a disability advocate who has answered the call of the non-profit healthcare world: “I am motivated by the knowledge of my unique position of being a person with a disability, a medical doctor, and executive director of a disability-focused NPO Zimele.”

She hopes to add a disability-focused PhD to the list soon.

“This places me in a perfect position to be a voice for people with disabilities in a world that doesn’t always listen. To use my powers for good, I need to keep moving forward with Zimele,” she said.

Chin said, “We aim to provide comprehensive amputee rehabilitation for the very disadvantaged who don’t have access to this type of care.”

Beneficiaries are assisted by a social worker, a physiotherapist and occupational therapist. They also receive any necessary medical care from Whitehead, and are provided with a prosthesis.

“The objective is to reintegrate them back into society and to hopefully get a job to provide for the self and family,” explains Chin, adding that the overburdened government health system has such stringent criteria that many either do not get a prosthesis, or even if they do, don’t get the care they need for physical and psychosocial rehabilitation.

“With a prosthesis and the right care, they are free to do anything you and I can do.”

He said they hope to replicate the model in other provinces if they can raise the funding.

Langa’s journey to finding help at Zimele began in 2014 when a necrotising poison invaded her body, and a resulting skin graft failed to fix the problem.

She was then diagnosed with HIV, and in 2016 it was decided that her left leg needed to be amputated above the knee.

“I was very depressed,” she said, explaining that it felt like the leg was still there.

“I kept asking myself: what am I going to do now and what are people going to say? What am I going to tell my three children?” she said.

When her partner left and her elderly father arrived from the Eastern Cape needing care, Langa felt desperate.

She had also by then given birth to another boy.

It was because of Whitehead that Langa started to benefit from Zimele’s services.

She said, “Being part of Zimele changed my life. I got counselling which I really needed. I had received it at Groote Schuur but only for a while.”

Through the counselling offered by Zimele, she was able to “open up and communicate” memories of what had made her life so difficult and was “eating [her] from inside”.

She also, thanks to Zimele, lost weight which makes having a prosthetic easier and joined group sessions to receive support.

“I had given up but then realised I must live my life,” she said, adding that she is getting skills in beading and being interviewed for a job as she hopes to find gainful employment soon.

“I am happy and honoured to have a prosthetic leg because where was I going to get it? I really appreciate all the help from Zimele and I am proud of myself too. I am so excited about what is going to happen next.”

Whitehead said one of the biggest barriers for people with disabilities is that “people assume that if there is a physical disability there must be a mental disability too”.

“A big challenge for amputees, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, is accessing proper comprehensive prosthetic rehabilitation that will enable them to reintegrate as fully as possible into society.”

Whitehead said she feels overwhelmed sometimes but “the resilience, determination and enthusiasm of our beneficiaries is a reminder to me to keep going when I feel overwhelmed with the challenges that come with running an NPO”.