Durban - The mother of a 10-year-old boy who was impaled on a steel reinforcing bar said her brave son did not cry while he waited more than two hours for help.
On Monday, a distraught Zama Zulu said doctors had removed the rod from Lusanda’s torso.
On Tuesday morning he was reported to be in a serious but stable condition at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital .
Lusanda Zulu, of Folweni, was playing on the side of the road on Sunday when he was startled by a passer-by. He started to run and tripped and fell.
He landed on the steel rod embedded in a piece of concrete. Zama said that someone who had seen him fall, called the police.
When police arrived, they realised they had to leave him in place.
Lusando told the policemen where he lived. Zama was already on her way when she received the call. She arrived 30 minutes after he impaled himself.
She was horrified at the sight of her son.
“We had to wait at least two hours before the right kind of help could arrive. The police officers and the ambulance staff tried to make him comfortable and relaxed because he had this piece of steel stuck inside of him,” she said.
It is thought that the steel rod had been part of an unfinished drain right next to the road.
Zama said she felt helpless as she waited at her son’s side while he was going through the most painful experience of his life.
“I just stood there, not knowing what to do. All I could do was comfort him. He was very brave. He did not cry throughout the entire ordeal. Even when they cut the steel to free him, he didn’t cry,” she said.
She was reluctant to discuss her son’s condition, but she said “he is in some pain, but he will be okay”.
Firefighters had to cut the steel from the concrete to lift Lusanda and the bar into helicopter for the trip to Luthuli Hospital.
Daily News