A GERMISTON man who has been suffering from what looks like an elephantiasis condition for eight years will soon receive help after a hospital chief executive intervened.

Bertha Gxowa Hospital CEO Christina Mndaweni yesterday told Sowetan that Elias Sukazi's biopsy results and referral letter would be ready tomorrow in order for him to get treatment at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg immediately.

Sukazi, 39, who has been bedridden for the past five years, has been to at least five hospitals in Gauteng and in Mpumalanga trying to receive medical attention.

However, despite undergoing four biopsies during this period, he has yet to find out what is actually wrong with his leg.

"It's either they tell me that the results were not successful or that the tissue they had taken had dried up before they tested it," Sukazi said.

As a last resort he went to Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston on October 24 after he was turned away from Charlotte Maxeke Hospital. Sukazi was told by Charlotte Maxeke to bring a referral letter from the hospital nearest to him.

A week later a biopsy was performed and he was told to return last Wednesday for his results. But the results were not ready.

Sowetan alerted Mndaweni to Sukazi's plight. She then consulted the doctor who had seen him. "We are not a big hospital and don't have the necessities to treat his condition. But we will do everything to assist him to get help somewhere else."

Sukazi's partner, Thuli Ngobende, said: "I'm happy that something good has finally come out of this. It's been a tough time for him, the pain and the humiliation."

- sifilel@sowetan.co.za