Kathryne Fuller, who was found unconscious and partially paralysed after taking “tainted street cocaine”, is making great strides in her recovery.
|||She’s getting back to the “old Kathryne” and will use her traumatic experience to help others.
Kathryne Fuller, 30, who was found unconscious and partially paralysed in a Kampala hotel room in February last year, after taking what was believed to be tainted street cocaine, is making great strides in her recovery.
Now working as a manager at a four-star bed and breakfast (B&B) in Umhlanga, Fuller said she now has the confidence to focus on her future.
Last year in February, she and her colleague, Durban-based film producer Jeff Rice, who did work for the Amazing Race show, were in Kampala, Uganda, on a production trip, and had taken bad cocaine.
Fuller was rushed to hospital, while Rice was found dead at the scene.
Fuller pleaded guilty to drug possession and was fined 1 million shillings (R3 000), and after two weeks in a Ugandan hospital, and trying to organise paperwork for her release home, she returned to Durban with her father and was rushed to Entabeni hospital for emergency care, where she stayed for 14 weeks.
“Last year in April when the doctors said I might not be able to walk I swore to myself that I would not be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”
Looking at ease, Fuller said she has also stopped physiotherapy, which she had been receiving until last year.
“I am doing my own therapy such as massaging,” said Fuller, adding that she was happy to not see hospitals any longer.
She still limps and has limited use of her right hand because of nerve damage.
“In March this year I gained the upward movement of my wrist, so it’s better than hanging like it used to,” she said.
Fuller said doctors were not able to tell her if her nerve endings would fully recover.
“The nerve endings only grow a little a day, so the doctors cannot give a definite yes or no as to whether my hand will heal completely,” she said, adding that despite this, her recovery to date had been described as amazing by doctors.
While she said she would still would like to get back into the broadcast industry, the B&B was where she was happy now.
She is also working on her Masters degree in health promotion.
“I would also like to begin life coaching, especially to younger people, share my story, and show them that drugs are bad, but that also through perseverance you can do anything,” she said. - Saturday Star