Page 19 - Waterfall City Issue 3 March 2024

SAVING LIVES

Learn CPR, mom urges after saving toddler from near drowning.

A
toddler has made a
full recovery after a
near-fatal drowning
thanks to his mother’s
knowledge of cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR) and professional,
caring medical teamwork.

“Our children, their cousin and some
friends, including our neighbour’s
daughter, were playing far away from
our new pool, but when one of them
came inside looking for a plaster, Sekani
must have been trying to follow her,”
says his mother, Thandokazi Nzima.

“Suddenly, we heard the neighbour’s
child, Rethabile Lehodi, screaming
for help, ‘Sekani fell in the pool.’ It was
such a shock that my sense of time
became utterly distorted. I was praying Sekani check-up: Registered nurse Dikeledi Ramatlo, Enrolled nurse Tholakele Dhladhla and unit
and praying as I ran to where she had manager of the paediatric ICU at Netcare Waterfall City Hospital Sr Jabulile Nxumalo are pictured with
drowning survivor Sekani Nzima during a recent check-up.
pulled my boy out of the water, and,
through prayer, I became calm and was
able to start performing CPR. signs of life. It didn’t take long for the condition and the distance to the
ambulance to arrive, and it was as if most appropriate hospital for his
“I am a mining engineer, and although everything came together to save needs in peak hour traffic, the decision
I attended CPR training, I’ve never had Sekani,” she says. was made to airlift Sekani to Netcare
to perform it on a person – let alone my Waterfall City Hospital via Netcare 911
own son. I had to adjust the pressure “Arriving to find that Sekani was helicopter emergency medical services
for such a young child, and I wasn’t sure breathing was a relief, although (HEMS),” Netcare 911 advanced life
if I should interrupt CPR to turn him he was not breathing as well as support paramedic Jacques Andersen
over. It was a frightening situation as a we would have liked,” Netcare 911 adds.
mother,” she says. intermediate life support practitioner
Wikus de Jager says. “The mother’s CPR was the game
A neighbour called Netcare 911 for changer for Sekani. Most definitely,
emergency medical assistance, and the The team checked his vital signs, and it was a deciding factor in her son’s
Emergency Operations Centre helped when Sekani was stable enough, he survival and outcome, and I would
coach Mrs Nzima on what to do for was transferred to the ambulance, encourage everyone to learn basic CPR
her 18-month-old son until help could where the team continued to give him as you never know when it could help
arrive on the scene at their home near oxygen while warming the little boy. to save a life,” he says.
Silver Lakes in Pretoria East.
“We knew he was not out of the “By the grace of God, there is a cul-
“Eventually, he coughed and showed woods yet, and based on Sekani’s de-sac right outside our house where

Waterfall City Issue 3 2024 17