'I want to hold my kids again': Father's bid for bionic hand after losing hands and feet to meningococcal
A Brisbane father who contracted meningococcal and had to have both hands and feet amputated is now desperate to receive a bionic hand.
Father-of-three Johaan Kaa lost his feet and hands in August 2014 after being struck with meningococcal septicaemia.
Now he is desperate to get a bionic hand so he can hold his children and his wife's hand again.
The 53-year-old initally thought he just had "man flu".
It was only after he passed out in front of his “screaming” kids at his Thornlands home that his family realised the severity of his illness.
That night doctors told his wife of 31 years, Phillipa, Mr Kaa only had 48 hours to live.
Miraculously Mr Kaa woke from a coma 11 days later with black hands and feet.
Doctors told him he needed to have them amputated, but there was a chance he wouldn’t survive the surgery.
Resigned to his fate, Mr Kaa said his farewells to his wife and three children Syra-Maree, 9, Staycee, 7, and Monique, 5.
Thankfully Mr Kaa woke up six hours later - but his life would never be the same.
He lost his family home because he couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage and couldn’t return to his manufacturing job.
But now, none of that matters, there’s just one thing Mr Kaa wants: a bionic hand.
“I do, I want to hold my kids again and hold Phillipa’s hand,” he said.
“I just, I really want that hand. It would mean the world to me.”
The local community have rallied around Mr Kaa’s bid to raise $91,000 for a bionic hand. His GoFundMe page has already raised $5,000 in four months.
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Mr Kaa said he has “everything to live for”, and despite dark times in a hospital bed he had to pull through for his family.
“If anything, it does teach you to live your life even fuller than you would have," he said.
Tragically, it’s not the first time the Kaas have had to overcome misfortune.
In 1988 the family lost their first-born child, a girl, at only 10 weeks old from SIDS.
It was 20 years later that Syra-Maree, their eldest daughter, was born.
Mr Kaa has gone on to work as a public speaker, addressing high school students and community groups.
A statement on his GoFundMe page says “he is an inspiration to all who meet him”.
