The first thing Xolani Mthembu did when he spotted someone lying in the grass behind a tree was check for a pulse.

“And when I saw her chest move slightly, I knew she was alive and needed urgent help,” he recalled.

The woman he found was 26-year-old Angelica Ferreira, who had been involved in a serious car accident on the KaMagugu road shortly after midnight on Sunday, July 6.

Mthembu discovered her lying face down in the veld more than 10 hours after the accident, roughly six metres from where her car, which had since been removed, came to a standstill.

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Ferreira, a fitness instructor, is currently in a coma and receiving treatment at Rob Ferreira Hospital. Mthembu said he had stopped at the scene around 11:00 that morning when he noticed a spare wheel lying near the road.

“When I picked it up, I also saw a jack. That’s when I found the injured lady. She was lying on her stomach. It had been bitterly cold the previous night – the fact that she survived is a miracle.”

He told Lowvelder this week he believes Ferreira had not been thrown from the car, but rather crawled away before collapsing behind two small trees.

“I’ve been at many accident scenes and knew not to move her – she might have had spinal injuries. I called a tow truck driver I know and asked him to urgently get an ambulance.”

First person on the scene

Frikkie Mattheus of Mvikeli Protection Services was the first person on the scene shortly after the accident. He had just finished his shift at the Innibos Festival and was driving home along the KaMagugu road.

“When I came around a bend, I saw dust and realised an accident had occurred. The car was in the veld with its lights on. I stopped, switched on my emergency lights and approached the vehicle.”

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There was no one inside. The engine was still running, but could not be switched off due to damage to the steering column.

“I looked around the car but couldn’t see anyone. I went back to the road and tried to flag down passing motorists, but no one stopped. Then my torch died. I phoned the police. An hour later, they still hadn’t arrived.

“When a tow truck eventually got there, I went home.”

The following day, Mattheus said, he couldn’t stop thinking about the accident and the empty scene.

Admitted at Rob Ferreira

“At around 12:00, I drove back. I picked up a folder in the veld, and inside was a paper with personal details. I went to the address and was told a woman was in ICU at Rob Ferreira.”

At the hospital, he spoke to the treating doctor and learnt that Ferreira had been admitted at around 11:00.

Mattheus then confirmed that the police had gone to the accident scene but had apparently only instructed the tow truck driver to remove the vehicle – without realising Ferreira was still lying nearby.

“It seems they never searched the area. I was very upset and reported the matter to the station commander.”

Ferreira’s mother, Antoinette Massyn, said her daughter suffered a traumatic brain injury and was initially treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit before being moved to the neurological unit.

Diagnosed with diffuse axonal injury

Doctors diagnosed her with a diffuse axonal injury – a serious form of brain trauma that occurs when the brain shifts rapidly inside the skull during a violent impact, causing the nerve fibres to shear. Ferreira has remained in a coma since the crash.

“Although she’s a fighter, she now needs to be transferred for intensive rehabilitation at the M-Care facility,” said Massyn.

As Ferreira does not have medical aid, her family has launched a crowdfunding campaign. The estimated cost of the rehabilitation programme is R300 000 for three months, during which doctors hope to determine the full extent of her injuries.

Donations can be made at www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/funds-for-angie.