Pretoria - Former Springbok hooker Naka Drotske’s condition became critical on Wednesday, according to a hospital spokesperson and his cousin Steven Drotkse.
"Please pray for Naka Drotske, he is fighting for his life, in critical condition in ICU. I truly believe our Heavenly Father has got some bigger plans for him and his future," Steven Drotske said in a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon.
According to a report on News24 on Thursday, Brenda Steenkamp, a spokesperson for Mediclinic, said: "He had massive intestinal bleeding that led to hypovolemic shock. He is getting blood now. He has acute respiratory distress syndrome with a lung infection for which he is being sedated and ventilated. Various organs have been affected.”
Drotske, 47, was shot three times during a home invasion just outside Pretoria on November 29.
Drotske, who represented the Boks in 26 Tests and was a member of the 1995 World Cup-winning squad, was visiting his brother Tinus’s smallholding in Kameeldrift, north of Pretoria, along with former Bok teammate, Os du Randt, when the robbers surprised them. A woman tried to close the lounge security door, but the three armed men pounced on her and forced their way in.
Drotske, who had been sitting at the lounge table near the security gate, flipped the table and pushed the three men out the door: “It was a big scuffle, almost like a scrum. But this time it was one against three. With his strong physique he managed to win in the scrum and that is when he was shot three times in the abdomen, arm and just above the rib,” according to Ian Cameron, who heads up AfriForum’s community safety section and who was among those present when the group was attacked.
The family ran to the security gate in the passageway and pressed the panic button, which led to the attackers fleeing.
But their woes did not end there: as Du Randt rushed the injured bleeding Drotske to Netcare Montana Hospital, the car they were travelling in veered off the road and two of its tyres burst.
A car passing by stopped and gave them a lift to the hospital.
According to reports, Drotske had lost a lot of blood by the time he was admitted.