A 11-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after a near-drowning incident at St Mike’s tidal pool.
Zelna Wheeler (56) was relaxing near the tidal pool on Friday afternoon (September 15) when she heard a child screaming that another child was in trouble in the pool.
A beachgoer quickly scooped up the child from the pool, and Zelna jumped into action to try save the life of little Zusakhe Mchunu.
“The child looked dead. I immediately started to run with him while I was ‘pumping’ his body to get the water out of him. I think that’s why the water and phlegm began to come out of his mouth and nose. I placed him on his side and carried on tapping him to get the phlegm out, and then another beachgoer assisted me by doing CPR on him,” she explained.
She said that it was ‘touch and go’ but during CPR, Zusakhe opened his eyes.
Shortly afterwards, the lifeguards came running to assist and took him to the ambulance, and he was taken to Port Shepstone Regional Hospital where he was in ICU.
An emotional Zelna said she had visited Zusakhe and his mother, Babalwa Mchunu in hospital and was so happy to see that the child had recovered (and had a smile on his face) from his terrible ordeal.
“I have been living in Uvongo for three years but this was my first time on St Mike’s beach. Perhaps there was a reason as to why I decided to go down to the beach that day,” she said.
Zelna urged parents to keep a constant eye on their children while they swim.
“I really hope this story creates awareness for parents, not to leave their children unattended near water. If it had been a minute later, Zusakhe would have drowned,” she said.
Babalwa from Uzimkhulu is very grateful for everyone who jumped in to help save her child’s life.
“We took the children to the beach to celebrate a birthday party. When we arrived there they were so excited and ran straight to the pool without listening to us, and that’s when the incident happened in about two minutes.”
“I’m so grateful to Zelna, if she wasn’t there my baby wouldn’t be alive. There are no words to describe my gratitude to her. I would like thank all the doctors and nurses who helped him and Thabani Ndobe who was with me from the beginning of the incident,” she said.
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