A boy’s life saved ….

The glory and praise usually goes to the “Heroes”. The Emergency Care Providers that race out loudly with lights flashing and sirens screaming, those that do all they can to save that life. The paramedics and emergency care providers that deal directly with the emergency, those on the scene, they are often branded as the “Heroes”. Little thought is given to those behind the scenes. In fact, they are often simply forgotten in all of the drama that ensues.

At around 10h15 on the 15th of August, the school bell rang for the end of the period indicating to learners that it was time to move on to the next lesson. What exactly went wrong, or how or why it happened is not really important; the fact is that a 15 year old student fell from the first floor of the school building, hitting the metal stair-case hand-railings as he fell. This fall triggered an entire sequence of events. ER24 Paramedics arrived to find the child’s lifeless body laying at the bottom of the stairs; no breathing and no pulse present. The child was clinically dead. Paramedics began to resuscitate the young boy – intravenous drips were inserted, a tube was placed into his airway, chest compressions were started. The child had fallen a considerable height and he had hit the metal bar with such great force that it seemed that all odds were against the 15 year old who just minutes earlier was simply changing class at school. The paramedics were determined to beat these odds.

Medication and electrical shocks were administered to try and get the heart to beat. For at least eight minutes the prognosis seemed dismal to say the least. Paramedics continued with CPR. Ten minutes had passed when suddenly a rhythm on the heart monitor changed; the young boy had a pulse. He was still not breathing and the prognosis still seemed very poor. Then, slowly the child began to breathe again on his own and he started moving his body.

AER24 was requested to airlift the boy to a specialist trauma unit in Johannesburg and the helicopter landed on the school sports fields after which the child was quickly loaded; the helicopter becoming airborne again with the patient on board shortly thereafter . About 26 minutes later the helicopter landed in Johannesburg with a stable, yet still critical patient.

All of this actually happened. It was real. The initial call was made to the local Police Station where Cst Mosiane and Cst Mooketsi were working. These two constables immediately realised the seriousness of the incident and their fast actions in notifying the Advanced Life Support Paramedics really set the wheels in motion. Had these Heroes that are hidden away in a radio room at the Police Station, not made the call to Advanced Life Support Paramedics as fast as they did, there is no doubt that this incident would have had a tragic outcome. We THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for being the “Hidden, Unseen Heros!”.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and teachers of this young boy during his long road to recovery.

—- Gavin Edwards, ER24 Potchefstroom Branch Manager