Joshua and his mother Bernadette Petersen
With mounting medical costs, unemployment and a teenage son left permanently paralysed after a school stabbing, a Durban family says they have been left with no choice but to reach out to the public for help.
Joshua Petersen, from Marianhill in Durban, recently took to social media pleading for assistance with essential medical supplies after the stabbing at Westridge High School during school hours last year left him quadriplegic.
The teenager’s mother, Bernadette Petersen, said their lives changed forever after Joshua was stabbed twice once in the neck and once in the abdomen during what she described as a bullying incident at school.
“The reality is we cannot do this alone anymore,” she said. “Joshua needs catheters, urine bags and diapers constantly, and these things are expensive. We never imagined we would be in this position.”
