Abstinence/Abstain Recommended Webster/ oxford meaning:
1. Voluntary forbearance especially from indulgence of an appetite or craving
2. To refrain deliberately and often with effort of self-denial from an action or practice
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Nyarai Marcella Penyai |
Nyarai Marcella Penyai turned 25 on August 10 2007, perhaps ordinarily she could be finishing her first Masters degree or making wedding plans. Unfortunately life cannot be ordinary for "Little Nyari" as she is affectionately known by those who have loved and cared for her over the years.
Nyarai suffered severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen.
On 15 October 1986 when she was four years of age she walked into her mother's kitchen playing with two of her friends from the house next door, the sound of a whistling kettle that Clara Penyai her mother had bought days earlier in South Africa had gotten her curiosity. A sharp cry from the kitchen brought Clara who was 7 months pregnant on her feet. Nyarai had inhaled the hot steam from the boiling kettle.
Nyari was telling stories to her mother as she walked into hospital where she was attended by a Junior Doctor who informed Clara that he will be standing in for the senior doctor who was in theatre at that time. It was getting difficult for Nyarai to breath at this point as she was swelling inside. The junior doctor had informed Clara that they needed to inset a tube to help her breath till the swelling goes down, Clara stood by as they prepared her for theatre.
Twelve hours later she had suffered two cardiac arrest, the junior doctor who was still waiting for his senior managed to resuscitate her both times. As the senior Doctor came in and assessed the damage of up to 80 per cent he was arguing with his junior telling him he should not have tried to resuscitate her the second time as she was going to be in a vegetative state if she survived the next 3 days. Clara stood by as they argued, maybe they had forgotten she was still there. Walking out the senior doctor told his junior, "Well she is all yours if you want to keep her alive".
The junior doctor slowly explained to Clara that Nyarai had suffered severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen, she was not expected to live the next two weeks. They never gave room for her surviving or yet live into adult hood. Day in day out Clara walked into the little room Nyarai was in, she would find the Junior doctor by her side, but there was nothing he could do for her.
Her parents adore her and it is their care which has maintained her, but they have had no life whatsoever -everything they do must be geared to Nyari. Her siblings too have suffered through all the attention given to their sister.
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