{"id":40134,"date":"2022-11-12T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/power-cuts-destroyed-her-soul-teen-dies-after-appealing-for-solar-powered-oxygen-to-stay-alive"},"modified":"2022-11-12T18:48:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T18:48:13","slug":"power-cuts-destroyed-her-soul-teen-dies-after-appealing-for-solar-powered-oxygen-to-stay-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/power-cuts-destroyed-her-soul-teen-dies-after-appealing-for-solar-powered-oxygen-to-stay-alive","title":{"rendered":"Power cuts ‘destroyed her soul’: Teen dies after appealing for solar-powered oxygen to stay alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>An Eastern Cape teenager who relied on an electricity-powered oxygen supply to stay alive, has died from lung failure, her family said.<\/p>\n

The plight of 18-year-old Unakho Kewana tugged at the nation’s heartstrings last month when she appealed for a solar-powered oxygen supply in order to beat power cuts.<\/p>\n

Unakho died at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital on Wednesday from long-term lung complications.<\/p>\n

Her weakened lungs had forced her to drop out of Grade 9 in 2019, shattering her dreams of becoming a lawyer.<\/p>\n

On Friday, her family revealed that doctors had said Unakho had been suffering from depression.<\/p>\n

The family and close friends believe the depression was caused by load shedding because Unakho hated being rushed to hospital for oxygen support every time there were power cuts in her NU13 Mdantsane area.<\/p>\n

Her aunt Ntombizanele Kwenane said: \u201cWe knew the load shedding schedule and whenever it was close to the scheduled hour for the power to cut off, [she] would panic and start sweating and shaking because so many things could go wrong. She knew that should she not make it on time to hospital in NU6, she would take her last breath.”<\/p>\n

Kwenane said that sometimes, after the power had been restored, Unakho would return home by ambulance or taxi, only for the electricity to cut off again a few minutes after the transport had left.<\/p>\n

Kwenane said:<\/p>\n

Seeing a patient on oxygen support die in front of her in hospital recently had affected Unakho\u2019s emotional state too, said Kwenane.<\/p>\n

Unakho will be buried next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s rights advocacy group Khula Community Development Project has called on the government to fix the energy crisis, saying load shedding was destroying lives.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s director Petros Majola was at the forefront of a drive to get Unakho a sponsored solar-powered oxygen supply.<\/p>\n

He said a businesswoman in Mthatha and a generator company in East London had been planning to donate a new generator at the time of Unakho’s death.<\/p>\n

Majola said: \u201cThe power cuts had a negative impact on Unakho\u2019s emotional well-being because every time the load shedding neared she cried. Eskom should understand that the implementation of load shedding is causing a lot of damage to lives and livelihoods.”<\/p>\n

The family is struggling to bury Ukhona and hopes the public can assist.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. An Eastern Cape teenager who relied on an electricity-powered oxygen supply to stay alive, has died from lung failure, her family said. The plight of 18-year-old Unakho Kewana tugged at the nation’s heartstrings last month when she appealed for a solar-powered oxygen supply in order to beat power cuts. Unakho died at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[274,315,483,311,127,3912,275],"class_list":["post-40134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-east-london","tag-eastern-cape","tag-eskom","tag-healh","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nPower cuts 'destroyed her soul': Teen dies after appealing for solar-powered oxygen to stay alive - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Eastern Cape teenager who relied on an electricity-powered oxygen supply to stay alive, has died from lung failure, h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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