GRASKOP – A man who rolled 90 metres down a cliff at God’s Window on Saturday morning was moved from the ICU to a normal ward on Monday afternoon.
Ms Robyn Baard, manager of client services and marketing at Mediclinic Nelspruit, said that Mr Thabo Lubisi (28) hadn’t sustained a single fracture during his fall. “He had only a slight laceration to the head,” she said .
Lubisi was admitted to the hospital after being rescued in an operation that lasted for hours. He fell the height of approximately 30 storeys, from a lookout point. He was reportedly visiting the tourist attraction along with work colleagues.
“He is very lucky to be alive,” said Mr Anton Strydom, a volunteer of Off-road rescue unit Nelspruit. He said that, according to bystanders, Lubisi climbed over the railing to take a picture of the vertical cliff when he lost his balance and fell. Strydom said he fell about 30 metres down a sheer cliff face before hitting the next level. He proceeded to roll down the precipice of God’s Window for about another 40 metres of steep incline before reaching another steep drop. He explained that the man’s fall was broken by trees and shrubbery on the way down.
Paramedics and rescue workers were notified of the incident and hurried to the scene. Mr Renier van der Merwe of Thaba Chweu Disaster Management descended with ropes to look for the victim. “At this stage we assumed that he had not survived,” Strydom said. Once Lubisi had been located, Mr Cobus Els, a paramedic with Netcare 911, also descended.
“The whole rescue took about four hours as the terrain was very difficult to work in and the ledge where he had landed was very narrow with little place to work on and around the victim,” he said. “We had to remain attached to our ropes at all times as there was another 50-metre drop about 10 metres from where we were treating the patient.”
According to Mr Christo Venter, crisis communicator at ER24, they dispatched a rescue helicopter to the scene shortly after the incident was reported. However, poor weather made it impossible for them to continue their rescue mission and they were forced to turn back.
The people on the ground, which included Sabie and Graskop fire-and-rescue teams devised a pulley and after stabilising the patient, pulled him up with ropes and placed on a safe spot where a helicopter could reach him, When the skies cleared, a helicopter from Mpumalanga emergency medical services transported Lubisi to hospital.
