NETCARE 911 paramedics will always remember Thursday 20 October 2016 as a very special day after they received a call to assist a seven-year-old-boy to fulfil his dream.
Little Mohamed Hussain is terminally ill with cancer and Little Fighters Cancer Trust, with the help of sponsors, brought him and his parents down to Durban to see the dolphins.
However, according to Chris Botha from Netcare 911, tragedy struck.
On their arrival in Durban, little Mohamed’s condition got so bad that he had to be admitted to the Netcare Umhlanga hospital. His father approached the hospital manager Mark Van Heerden and asked for help to fulfil his son’s dream. Consultation with Netcare 911, Umhlanga Hospital and uShaka Marine World took place and arrangements were made to take the little boy in an ambulance under the constant care of an advanced life support paramedic to interact with the dolphins.
“This was a very emotional event as stands full of people witnessed the boy being carried by medics to the side of the pool. With the song playing ‘there is one moment in time’ the handler slowly brought the massive dolphin towards the child. Tears ran down the faces of the most hardened paramedics. The boy was able to touch and feed the dolphin, and the expression on his face will be burnt into the hearts of all who witnessed this awesome event,” said Chris.
After the event was over paramedics drove the child back to the hospital where he was able to rest for an hour. He and his family were then driven by Netcare to the King Shaka International Airport where the Netcare jet landed with a crew of paramedics.
“The boy was stabilised for the flight and after he was strapped into a special stretcher they boarded the aircraft and flew to Port Elizabeth where he was admitted into a hospital near his home,” said Chris.
