Community brings Selanna home
The community united over the weekend during a frantic search for 19-year-old Selanna Biggs, who had been reported missing by her parents around 15:00 on Saturday.
Facebook and WhatsApp groups were flooded with offers to help find Biggs, sparking various community groups to take initiative to look for her.
By Sunday morning a full area search had been initiated to cover all possible roads in and surrounding Mbombela, Barberton, Kaapsehoop and Ngodwana. “We put the word out and about an hour and a half later there were more than 26 vehicles and a group of motorcyclists that had joined,” Albert Gryvenstein, operational manager of Bossies Community Justice, said.
What made the search even more urgent was the fact that Biggs suffers from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis and Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed. It can be fatal and if left untreated can cause comas or heart problems.
READ THE STORY HERE: Selanna’s sporting career takes a nightmarish turn
Volunteers covered hundreds of kilometres. “It is amazing to see how a community can pull together,” he added. At around 16:30 on Sunday, more than 24 hours after she had been reported missing, her crashed Suzuki S-Presso was spotted by pedestrians in the area just outside Kaapsehoop.
WATCH HERE: How Biggs’ car was wrecked by the accident
They flagged down volunteers on motorcycles who were patrolling a nearby road and the search parties were led to the scene. Biggs was severely dehydrated and in and out of consciousness when the rescue team found her.
After she was treated by ER24 and cut free from the vehicle, she was airlifted to Mediclinic Nelspruit. The helicopter landed at 19:10.
According to Robyn Baard, patient experience manager at Mediclinic Nelspruit, Biggs was taken to the emergency centre where hospital staff were waiting to assist. “She was admitted with a femur fracture and was operated on by an orthopaedic surgeon on Tuesday afternoon,” Baard said.
In a WhatsApp message on Tuesday evening, Milly Biggs, Selanna’s mother, said the operation had been complicated as there was a massive infection as well as a blood clot.
“The wound cannot be closed as it needs to be washed with antibiotics for a few days, and then it’s back to theatre to check, close and repair the toe. If the infection does not clear, she could lose her leg. The doctor was fantastic and we trust the Lord will continue to guide him.”
Baard said the Biggs family are overwhelmed by the community’s kindness throughout this process. “Milly expressed the family’s gratitude towards the community’s time, money and energy that have been devoted to her daughter’s well-being,” she said.
John Meintjies, ACS Security senior manager, expressed how personal this case has been for the community. “It touched me to see how people who are often confronted with these types of cases, were overcome by anxiety and worry; how they were sobbing when we received the phone call saying she had been found and was alive. I was crying.”
How it started
After having lunch on Saturday with her parents at Greek Kouzina just before 14:00, Selanna went to buy Milly some sweets and left home straight after for a drive.
According to her mother, her daughter likes driving around and regularly visits Kaapsehoop. At around 15:00 her parents became worried after being unable to reach her on her cell phone.
They decided to drive around on Selanna’s usual routes in search of her, without any luck. From there, they contacted local hospitals, the police station as well as Hi-Tech Security.
Several people attempted to track her cell phone, seeing that her car did not have an installed tracker system, but this proved unsuccessful. She was then reported missing.
The importance of car and cell phone trackers
Selanna’s father, Jason, emphasised the importance of car trackers. “The pain we’ve been through not knowing where our daughter was, was unbearable. We cannot stress enough how important it is to have a tracker in your vehicle.”
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Meintjies encouraged specifically “softer targets”, such as female drivers, to install tracking systems in their vehicles.
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He did, however, add that cell phone trackers are equally important. He said to keep in mind that if your car is stolen or a loved one goes missing, it is much more efficient than a cell phone.
