Three-year-old Jude Ameirah Hope Mouton wakes, plays with her siblings and forms words with her mouth. Her family understands her gestures. What they have not heard for almost two years is the sound of her voice.
Jude was born with serious heart conditions and later needed open-heart surgery. During that journey, doctors discovered a severely narrowed airway. A tracheostomy helped her breathe, but too little air reaches her vocal cords to create sound. Her parents, Vaughan and Fahzlin, have learned the daily care her airway requires. Vaughan became her full-time caregiver while Fahzlin continued working. Now the Kimberley family is preparing to travel to Cape Town for specialist assessment and a possible airway reconstruction process that may involve several procedures over time.
Medical aid covers many core procedures, but travel, accommodation, consultations, tests, physiotherapy and transport still add up. The campaign is helping the family pursue the next step without pretending that the road will be simple or immediate.
What people made possible
- Jude’s family has adapted daily life around specialist airway care.
- A Cape Town team is assessing a possible staged reconstruction process.
- Support helps cover the non-medical and uncovered costs around treatment.
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