When her otherwise healthy 18-year-old autistic son was wheeled into an operating room at Livingstone Hospital for an appendix operation, a Gqeberha mother never expected him to return partially sighted, battling septicaemia and tuberculosis.

And now, eight harrowing months later, Natasha Orien finds herself thrust into a role she never imagined — that of a full-time nurse for Tyler within the confines of their Gelvandale home...