When partly paralysed stroke patient Cecil September plugged in the electrical cable and held tight to the bare wires, he prayed as he waited to die. Instead, within hours, he had fully recovered.
The astonishing phenomenon has baffled doctors who have treated the Lentegeur man.
It sounds like a bizarre tale from a "believe it or not" television show - but September's firm handshake and the spring in his step are proof that cannot be ignored.
September suffered two severe strokes, one in December 2000 and a second in March last year, which robbed him of his ability to speak and left him with no use of his right hand and a stiff right leg.
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| 'I knew there was no way I was going to be able to make ends meet if I was boarded' |
His doctor was arranging for him to be medically boarded from his job.
September made up his mind.
"I sent my children outside to play. I was just sitting there and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to make ends meet if I was boarded," he said.
He shows a plug attached to an electrical wire with two bare ends.
"I plugged it in, switched it on and held the two wires, one in each hand, as I prayed. It shocked me and I felt it going through me but then the electricity in the house tripped.
| 'This was an acute recovery in just a few hours' |
"I sat up slowly, unplugged the plug with my left hand and walked slowly outside. I walked round the corner and as I walked I realised I could bend my leg. Then I started running, and I ran right to Mnandi Beach and jumped in the sea with all my clothes on," September said.
Then he ran all the way home again, slowly exercising his right hand all the way.
His doctor, Faiez van der Schyff, who has treated September since 1988, said the stroke was a "one over five", or "very severe".
"He was completely dazed when I saw him after his treatment at G F Jooste and Groote Schuur hospitals. He had been discharged. His right side was virtually useless and his mouth completely skew. He couldn't speak at all," Van der Schyff said.
September's previously well-controlled hypertension was way out of control, and although he showed a slight improvement with physiotherapy, his second stroke in March 2001 set him right back.
Van der Schyff filled in forms to have him medically boarded from his job as a cleaner at the Epping Market.
Then, two months ago, September had "bounced back into my surgery".
"He could speak, his palsy had cleared up, and when I measured his strength it was five over five, which is completely normal. There is just no way that he recovered naturally, this was an acute recovery in just a few hours," Van der Schyff said.
Van der Schyff was sceptical when September arrived to say he was recovered, but after testing him on a treadmill this week, could do nothing but give him a clean bill of health.
Van der Schyff sent September for a second opinion. Although that specialist physician said it was amazing and that he "couldn't believe it", he had not met September previously and so could not make an adequate comparison.
Van der Schyff said: "This was no slow recovery, and nothing to do with getting his hypertension under control.
"I saw it with my own eyes. This was an acute recovery, and while his high blood pressure had been controlled for years, when I saw him fully recovered, his blood pressure was out of control."
He explained that sometimes stroke patients could make an adequate recovery if high blood pressure was brought under control.
"With Cecil it was the other way round. His blood pressure was well controlled before, but when he recovered it was up and down, so I don't believe the blood pressure could have had anything to do with his recovery."
Dr Linda de Villiers, a specialist at Groote Schuur's stroke unit, described a stroke as "irreversible damage to the brain tissue" caused either by the blockage of a blood vessel, or a burst blood vessel resulting in a brain bleed.
Although about 40 percent of stroke patients made a reasonable recovery, becoming functional and regaining their independence, this depended on the severity of the stroke.
De Villiers discounted the possibility of an electrical current being able to cure irreversible brain damage.
Nowhere was any kind of electrical treatment used for stroke patients.
"When a person has a stroke, a piece of brain tissue dies. It's damaged permanently and you can't resurrect it," she said.
Van der Schyff said: "It seems to me it would be a good idea to examine the use of electrical currents to treat stroke patients as a potential prospect for the future."
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