16 |1 AUGUST^2019 http://www.drum.co.za

WE ARE

TRAPPED

This mom and daughter

are stuck in their homes

because they are too

heavy to move around

BY KHOSI BIYELA

PICTURES:SHARONSERETLO

She has no idea what she weighs as her

scale only goes up to 180kg.

She looks bigger than her mom and,

like Betty, she’s desperate to get out of her

house. “I’m trying everything, from injec-

tions to the Banting diet, but the skin

between my legs is hardening,” she says,

tears running down her face.

B

ETTY heard a cracking noise

when she stood up from her

couch to go to bed one night

in 2001. “I was watching TV

in the lounge and when I

stood up to go to the bed-

room, I heard the sound of something

breaking. I fell back on the sofa. Sudden-

ly I couldn’t move my legs,” she tells us.

Her late husband William was in the

lounge with her. At first he thought she

was joking but soon realised his wife re-

ally couldn’t stand up.

The pain in her legs was “excruciating”,

she recalls, and William took her to hos-

pital, the first of many trips to the emer-

gency room. Initially, doctors didn’t

know what had caused her to collapse

and she was simply prescribed painkill-

ers and given a pair of crutches. When

things worsened she went to a different

hospital, where doctors were again una-

ble to diagnose what was wrong.

A gruelling six months later doctors at

the Clinix Botshelong Empilweni Hospi-

tal in Vosloorus discovered Betty had

broken both her legs. “When my left leg

broke my entire weight was transferred

to my right side causing my right leg to

break as well,” Betty says.

She was transferred to Life The Glynn-

wood hospital in Benoni for knee re-

placement surgery but after the opera-

tion she still couldn’t walk. “I went for

physiotherapy but I quit because it

wasn’t working. I was also scared my legs

were going to break again,” Betty says.

Her granddaughter, Thando (20), takes

care of her gogo. She was six years old

when she moved in with Betty and keeps

the house clean and prepares meals

every day. Thando finished school last

year and hopes to study nursing.

Obesity runs in their family, Betty says.

Her grandmother, Elizabeth Mabena,

was housebound for 12 years before she

died at age 103 in 1996.

“Her heart was strong but her bones

couldn’t carry her body,” Betty says.

A

NNA’S nightmare began a

few months before her mom

broke her legs when she was

involved in a car crash on

her way home from work

with her husband, Mandla

Tshabalala, who died in 2017 at age 55. “I

G

OGO Betty Shabang

heartsore. It’s bee

years since she’s

seen her daughter,

Anna Tshabalala,

and she’s losing

hope she’ll ever see

her child again.

It’s not that Anna lives far away or

doesn’t want to see her mother. In fact,

Betty (69) and Anna (51) live only a few

streets apart in Tsakane, east of Johan-

nesburg, but they might as well be living

on different continents.

Both women are trapped in their

homes, imprisoned by cruel twists of fate

and genetics that have made them pris-

oners in their own bodies.

“I really miss my baby girl. I only see

pictures on the phone because I am

stuck in this house,” Betty tells DRUM.

It’s been nearly 20 years since the gogo

has been able to move around on her

own. Her weight and leg injuries make it

nearly impossible for her to get out of

bed, much less leave her house.

She doesn’t know how much she

weighs but the last time she was

weighed, “a few years ago”, she was

“around the 400kg mark”, Betty tells us.

The battle to lose weight has been a big

part of both of their lives for many years.

Betty has been following a low-carb eat-

ing programme since last October and,

although she’s been unable to weigh her-

self, she thinks it’s helping.

“I’ve cut fat, carbs and starch. I eat only

veggies, fruit and boiled meat,” she says.

Anna’s weight, as well as the after-ef-

fects of surviving two car crashes, have

trapped her in her bedroom too.

gu is

en

NEWS