Little ‘Thandeka’ is doing well at Witbank Hospital, where the newborn baby is being taken care of after she was found lying in the rain earlier this week.
According to the nurse in the ward where she is lying she has been given a vest by a mother in the ward. She has been drinking some milk.
Tuesday, February 21 at approximately 17:25 as the rain continued to fall, the newborn baby was found in the field close to the main entrance of Puma Stadium by a local security company that noticed a little bundle.
She was placed in the long wet grass. The person who dropped her in the grass made sure that she was warmly dressed but those warm, fluffy clothes would only keep her newborn body, believed to be only one day old, warm for a short while.
Adriaan Grobler and Lindiwe Ngoma paramedics from ER24 that rescued the one day old baby from the freezing cold weather on Tuesday, February 21 handed the baby to a nurse Sannah Smith from eMalahleni Private Hospital.
ER24 paramedics were contacted to go out to assist as the baby was still alive.
Adriaan Grobler and Lindiwe Ngoma rushed out to the scene in the pouring rain, knowing that time is of the essence. Once they arrived on scene she was not even moving or crying as she was suffering from hypothermia.
“She was ice cold and wet, she could not even cry that’s how cold she was,” said Grobler.
It is believed that the little girl was left alone in the rain for two or three hours.
Grobler and Ngoma immediately lifted her up into their arms and placed her in the warm ambulance.
They took off her soaking wet clothes and she was changed into warm blankets to get her body temperature back to normal.
“Once we got her temperature up she started sucking her little thumb,” continued Grobler.
She was transported to eMalahleni Private Hospital, where everyone at the hospital was willing to help her.
“At the hospital she was placed in an incubator so she could get nice and warm, then the paediatrician came to check on her and he confirmed that she was a day or two old. But she was in good condition,” said Grobler.
Once she was stabilized she was transported to Witbank Provincial Hospital, she had no form of identification with her.
Paramedics from ER24 named the baby Thandeka.
“Lindiwe and I named her Thandeka which means ‘Something that’s loveable.’ Police were notified about the situation and now social services will take over. We were so happy that we could save her life and that everyone was willing to help her,” continued Grobler.
Thandeka’ was given another chance to live, thanks to the security guards, the paramedics and the staff from the hospitals.
The sad part is that Kabod House, which is a safe haven for little abandoned babies like Thandeka, is closing its doors soon.
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