An Australian mother left paralysed and twice close to death in Uganda says she is back on her feet and making a slow and steady recovery, even if her future is uncertain.
Wave after wave of serious health conditions combined to leave Leah Makanda unable to move and triggered an emergency effort to return her to NSW for specialist treatment.
The mother-of-four lives with Addison’s disease, an illness that occurs when the body fails to produce a sufficient amount of certain hormones and can lead to headaches, weakness, fatigue, confusion and even a coma.
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It can be triggered by stress, which is what Makanda endured when a beloved graduate of her foundation died in January, leaving behind six children.
Makanda then contracted malaria and sepsis and was rushed to intensive care suffering severe chest pain brought on by blood clots on her lungs.
She fell unconscious twice and had to be resuscitated through cortisol steroids and fluids. Without them, it is very likely she would have suffered cardiac arrest and died.
About a week into her treatment in hospital she was hit by severe pain throughout her whole body, and she lost all movement in her arms and legs. She was suddenly paralysed and “totally depended on others”.
“I couldn’t move any part of my body, except for my head and there was minimal movement in my neck,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
‘It was like a battery was switched off and no one knew what was happening.”
With her hospital lacking the modern equipment seen in most Australian centres, she said she felt like a “rag doll” as her husband — a doctor and surgeon in his final year of residency — was left to “carry me everywhere”.
There were no hoists and just one wheelchair shared between the whole ward.
Makanda has lived in Uganda for 11 years but in March those close to her appealed for donations to fly her back to Newcastle for “vital” specialist care.
She was well enough to head home in May, with doctors at John Hunter Hospital diagnosing her with a functional neurological disorder, which is “caused by changes in how brain networks work”.
She was told it was “most likely brought on by the huge amount of illness I suffered over the months earlier”.
Makanda was discharged from hospital in recent weeks but her rehabilitation is ongoing and it is unclear how much mobility she will eventually recover.
She can be independent around the home but needs help with the kids and cooking.
“I can potter around and have regained some movement, but tire quickly,“ she said.
“It may be something I have to live with. It’s been really, really difficult – it’s changed the future for us.”
She thanked donors who had contributed to the GoFundMe campaign to get her home and help with her ongoing treatment, saying she was “so grateful” and “humbled”.
“So many people that I didn’t know have messaged us from all over saying they are praying for us and have donated,” she said.
“The kindness is so overwhelming.”
Makanda first travelled to Uganda, a landlocked country in East Africa, with the Salvation Army when the then-teen was part of a team that visited orphanages and ensured resources and money destined for sponsored children made it to them.
During another visit, Makanda, then 25, met her future husband Rob, who himself had been an orphan in Kampala.
He was inspired to become a doctor and surgeon following the death of his mother during the birth of her seventh child when he was just a boy.
The couple married and have four children, three boys and a girl they adopted.
They launched and run The Mbuyu Foundation with the mission of empowering men, women and children with the skills and resources needed to lift themselves out of poverty.
Makanda said “Uganda is home” and is desperate to return to the 400 families she helps, but knows doing so now would put her life at risk.
“I’m taking it one day at a time,” she said.