A Tongan fruit picker patient has returned to Tonga today with the help of a medical ventilator after doctors in New Zealand said they could not perform an operation on his head because it is very risky.
Henelī Tupou, 19, of Tatakamotonga was in the country on the New Zealand’s Regional Seasonal Employee.
He was taken to hospital in Nelson early last month in a serious condition before he was transferred to Christchurch hospital.
At the time we were reliably informed specialist surgeons found Tupou’s cause of sickness as very rare and was in life-threatening condition.
His wife ‘Asinate Tupou, who flew from Tonga while he was hospitalised, told Kaniva News today the surgeons eventually decided to refrain from performing an operation on Henelī’s head while attempting to cure the disease.
She said they returned to Tonga today and Henelī was given medication. She said he was told he has to take the medication as instructed for the rest of his life.
She sent us a photo of her and her husband which showed the couple apparently sitting together arm to arm in a plane. Heneli was shown wearing a nasal oxygen tube.
ʻAsinate later asked us to not publish the photo.
