The incredible benefits of high quality medical care in the comfort of your own home

Discovery's HomeCare saves Alfie da Silva's leg from amputation

Alfie da Silva and his wife Lucinda have children living across the world. They all try to meet at least once a year and, in 2014, the family decided that Christmas in Phuket sounded an idyllic way to spend the holiday season. After their children left, Alfie and his wife decided to stay behind for another two weeks. One day he decided to go along for a scooter ride with a friend he met in Thailand.

When the accident happened, all that Alfie was wearing was a helmet, a pair of shorts and a backpack. "I went off-road into a ditch and fell off the scooter. I had lots of grazes on the left side of my body," he explains. Alfie only had scrapes on the left side of his body and no broken bones. "The skin was healing perfectly. Yet, on the way back home, my leg started swelling and turned a deep purple," he recalls. "I had no idea that a wound under my knee, which wasn’t very large immediately after the accident, was on its way to becoming seriously infected."

Alfie is introduced to Discovery HomeCare

After coming back home a month after he'd gone to Phuket, he immediately visited his doctor who sent him to hospital where they treated the wound for a week. "While I was there, a lady from Discovery came to see me and mentioned Discovery had introduced HomeCare and asked whether I was interested."

Little did Alfie know that nurse Florence Kunene, who he now calls an angel, would enter his life soon. Sister Florence worked in a variety of clinical settings since 1970, including neurological, cardiac and trauma ICU facilities.

The incredible benefits of high quality medical care in the comfort of Alfie's own home

Alfie is grateful for receiving care at home without having to travel up and down to doctors and hospitals. He also believes that, despite treatment from the doctor, pharmacy and hospital, the wound would not have healed without Discovery HomeCare. "It's an incredible thing to have somebody like Florence, who knows what she is doing and is dedicated to me," he says.

Sister Florence joined Discovery HomeCare when it started up two years ago and her faith in the value of home care is abundant. She also found a renewed personal satisfaction in her work: "I now have the chance to give that patient my all. There is only one patient who needs me at any one time," she continues. "I offer that one patient every skill I have to help them."

Except for a slight indentation in the skin, Alfie's injury has completely healed.