Trinisha was born on the 30th of July 2008 and after her birth she struggled to breathe on her own. At 2 weeks old she was diagnosed with bilateral vocal cord palsy and the doctors did a tracheostomy to bypass the vocal cord palsy in order to allow air to pass through. The vocal cords are responsible for producing your voice and for letting air in and out allowing you to breathe. Trinisha had bilateral vocal cord palsy, which meant that her vocal cords were not moving normally in allowing air in and out and therefore affected her breathing.
When Trinisha was small she wasn’t affected as being trachy dependant. As she grew older it was difficult to understand her as her speech became affected. When Trinisha started school, she felt as though she was different from the other children. She didn’t want to show her trachy in public as she noticed that others would stare and it made her feel uncomfortable. Her mom treated her no differently to her siblings and encouraged her to live her life to the fullest.
The doctors in Durban told her mom that Trinisha would have to live with the tracheostomy for the rest of her life. Her mom refused to allow this fate for her daughter and did some research and came across the Paediatric Airway Unit at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. Dr Shazia Peer heads up the unit and performs airway surgery for all kinds of upper respiratory conditions. Her mom then contacted Dr Peer and she agreed to treat Trinisha. Dr Peer then asked the family to come to the Red Cross Hospital for a consultation. Trinisha’s quality of life changed within the first 6 months of receiving treatment at the Red Cross Hospital. As from June 2018 Wings & Wishes assisted the family with 16 flights. Earlier this year Trinisha had the reversal operation to successfully remove her tracheostomy.
Traveling from Durban to Cape Town would have been expensive for the family, but Wings and Wishes assisted with every trip. The family is so grateful to them for their support and contribution.
For Trinisha new adventures awaits! She is now able to be a normal teenager.
