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Little Ben Mahit arrived in New Zealand from Vanuatu with his mother, Mayling, on the 24th of July. Ben is 19 months old and was born with a hole in his heart which required surgery. He has come to New Zealand under the ROMAC programme.
I joined other Rotarians at the Airport to meet Ben and Mayling and took them to Ronald McDonald House. I had done a Supermarket shop and bought some warm clothing for them before they arrived. Ben had three appointments at Starship prior to his surgery which I attended with him. He had his surgery approx 2 weeks after his arrival. While he was waiting we went on a few outings. We visited a playground, several times, went shopping and went to Kelly Tarlton. The day of the surgery was very stressful for Mayling and while we waited to hear that all had gone well we visited the Museum.
Ben made a remarkable recovery and was only in hospital 3 days! During his stay there I spent most of the days with them. Mayling speaks very little English and I think she was grateful of the support.
Ben needs to stay in New Zealand for approximately six weeks after surgery. He has three appointments which I will attend and we are planning outings to the zoo, and a few other places and I need to top up the grocery stocks from time to time.
Ben would not have been able to have this surgery in his own country and thanks to the ROMAC programme he is now able to go home and lead a completely normal life.
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