Ray Haakonsen, Clovelly
On Saturday afternoon April 25, my wife and I heard a loud scream as our 19-year-old daughter’s foot broke through a slat in our upper floor deck at our home.
She was stuck solid with her leg firmly caught between two slats in our deck five metres above the concrete floor.
Being members of Cape Medical Response (CMR), we called, and in truly a short time, a paramedic (in chaos we didn’t get names) arrived and began responding to our daughter, who by now was in great stress, with very low blood pressure and pain.
The calming, patient, professional and empathetic way he responded to the situation was exemplary.
When he assessed the danger, he called the Fish Hoek fire brigade and a truck with emergency personnel and someone from disaster management, and they arrived in quick time, along
with the CMR ambulance and other CMR staff.
Once the first responder was able to get one drip in and the second responder, another, they were able to sedate and relieve pain for our daughter.
This gave the fire and disaster management guys an opportunity to move in and free our daughter from being trapped in the deck.
The co-operation between these emergency services personnel, urgency yet patience and communication with our very stressed daughter and my wife and myself was outstanding.
Once she was freed, they collaborated again to get her down our stairs and out the driveway to the ambulance.
The CMR guys then found out the closest suitable hospital was Victoria, and went in both vehicles, followed by my wife, to ensure she was admitted and in good care.
We want to publicly state (we will communicate with each service personally) how thankful we are to have such committed, professional and caring personnel working in these services in our valley!
Our daughter has some physical and learning challenges but was treated with such respect and care. It really gladdened our hearts and made a potentially profoundly serious situation, way more manageable.
If this letter makes it to press I would be so glad as we all need good news like this in the midst of the challenges we all face in these times.
God bless these guys and the amazing services they represent. We are truly grateful.
