Chiefs hosted a press conference on Thursday afternoon, when it was announced that Meyiwa has been diagnosed with paraplegia – thus ending his playing career prematurely at the age of just 19.
The Amajita star was involved in a serious car accident in November last year, while on his way home to Pietermaritzburg, and had been bed-ridden in hospital ever since.
Ramjee, who is the head physician at Naturena, has since explained the intricacies around Meyiwa’s spinal cord injury as well his recovery process since the accident.
“Essentially Wiseman developed or sustained various injuries, but the main injury was the injury to his thoracic vertebrae,” said the Chiefs doctor.
“He had sustained fractures and was transferred to Union Hospital, where he was stabilised and we also found that, apart from the thoracic vertebrae, there was also a spinal cord injury.
“He underwent surgical intervention and was in ICU for a while and every attempt was implemented to try and reduce the swelling on the spinal cord, but he didn’t progress very well in terms of recovery from the injury.
“After stabilising from the surgery, he was then transferred to Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital, where he has been for the last two and a half months.
“He progressed very well there but his thoracic/spinal cord injury has not resolved at all, and based on this he has now been diagnosed with what we describe as a T6 paraplegic, i.e. He’s wheelchair bound, so he can use his arms but not his legs.”
Ramjee also explained the process set to follow, with Meyiwa set to be transferred back home to KwaZulu-Natal, where he is set to continue his rehabilitation under medical supervision.
“Wiseman has been doing well and the next step is to try and empower him in terms of, first of all, functioning in his activities of daily living, so the staff at Netcare Rehab have been very active in their role in trying to implement that,” he added.
“He’s been doing well but not without challenges; of course, however, he has progressed to a stage where we are happy, and now the next step is for him to go back home to Pietermaritzburg, which will be a challenge on its own.”
Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung has assured that the club would foot the bill for their development graduate, as well as continue to provide financial support going forward.
