Three-year-old Jude Mouton’s family is raising R50,000 for specialised airway treatment that could help the Kimberley child breathe more freely and regain her voice.
Jude Ameirah Hope Mouton was learning to speak when complications following successful open-heart surgery left her airway severely narrowed and required a lifesaving tracheostomy.
Nearly two years later, Jude can breathe safely through the tracheostomy, but she cannot use her voice. She forms words silently, points and uses gestures that her family has learned to understand.
She plays alongside her siblings and joins their games but sometimes becomes frustrated when she cannot make herself understood. Despite specialist appointments, surgery and daily medical care becoming part of her childhood, her family describes her as an active and joyful little girl.
“She has been through things that I think many adults wouldn’t cope with,” her father, Vaughan Mouton, says. “But above all of that, she’s our daughter. She’s not just a person with a special medical need. She’s our Jude.”
Her family is now raising R50,000 to travel from Kimberley to Cape Town for specialised airway assessments beginning in September, followed by complex reconstructive surgery expected in October.
The treatment aims to improve Jude’s airway and could give her parents something they have spent two years waiting for — the opportunity to hear their daughter’s voice again.
“We are doing all of this just for her,” her parents say, “so that she can have her voice back and we can hear her scream, shout and be naughty like she is supposed to be at three years old.”
A BackaBuddy campaign, Help Jude Hope Find Her Voice, has been launched by Lazlo Mehl to help cover travel, accommodation, transport, medical shortfalls and daily living expenses associated with her treatment.
Jude’s medical journey began before she was born. During a 4D scan in the final weeks of Fahzlin Mouton’s pregnancy, the radiologist became unusually quiet.
“I was wondering what was happening because she had been silent for such a long time,” Fahzlin recalls. “Then she said something I will never forget: ‘Something does not look right with her heart.’ I started crying.”
At 33 weeks pregnant, Fahzlin and Vaughan travelled to Cape Town to see a paediatric cardiologist. Doctors initially identified one hole in Jude’s heart and believed it might close naturally after birth.
Further scans revealed that Jude had both an Atrial Septal Defect and a Ventricular Septal Defect. Neither was closing, meaning she would eventually require open-heart surgery.
From six months old, Jude began travelling between Kimberley, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg for specialist appointments and monitoring. She was also diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension.
Before doctors could operate on her heart, another problem emerged: Jude’s airway was considerably narrower than expected.
Medical teams first experienced difficulty intubating her during an angiogram. When she was eventually strong enough for open-heart surgery in October 2024, doctors again struggled to place a breathing tube.
Her airway had to be dilated and treated with a laser, with doctors ultimately using a tube intended for a newborn baby.
The heart operation successfully repaired both holes. After weeks in intensive care and the paediatric ward, Jude’s family began preparing to return home.
On the night before they were due to leave, however, Jude’s heart rate suddenly increased. She began sweating and struggled to breathe, forcing doctors to take her back to theatre in the early hours of the morning.
“The moment she started struggling to breathe on the eve of us going home was the scariest,” Vaughan says. “We were then told the only option would be a tracheostomy.”
For Fahzlin, agreeing to the procedure was difficult because of what it could mean for her daughter’s voice.
“I was against it because I was afraid she would lose her voice,” she says. “But there was no other way. It was the only way she would be able to breathe.”
The tracheostomy allowed Jude to breathe safely, but the voice her family hoped would return did not.
Now, almost two years later, the family’s attention has shifted towards the next stage of Jude’s treatment.
The planned assessments and reconstructive surgery in Cape Town offer the possibility of improving her airway and moving Jude closer to being able to communicate with her own voice.
For the Mouton family, the R50,000 fundraising target is therefore about more than covering the practical costs surrounding another medical journey. It represents the possibility of giving a three-year-old who has already undergone major heart surgery and years of specialist care something most families take for granted — the chance to be heard.
The planned treatment could improve Jude’s airway and restore her ability to communicate, making the campaign’s practical funding needs and donation appeal central to the family’s next step.
To support Jude Ameirah Hope Mouton’s journey, visit the Help Jude Hope Find Her Voice campaign on BackaBuddy:
https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/help-jude-hope-find-her-voice
