The fact that 12-year-old Johan Lombard is alive makes no sense medically.

Greys top neurologists and cardiologists have no explanation for it, other than ‘divine intervention’.

Dubbed ‘The Miracle Child’ by his doctors, Johan has risen from his literal death bed and defied everything specialists believed was medically impossible.

This is his story:

Up until a month ago, Johan was attending Grade 6 at Huttenpark Primary in Newcastle.

His foster mother, Dolly Lombard, describes him as a competitive child who loved playing sports.

Dolly is Johan’s biological grandmother who has taken responsibility for Johan as his foster parent and legal guardian from the time he was four months old.

At school, Johan competed in 100-metre sprints, hockey and soccer. At home, if there was a tree, Johan had to climb it.

His favourite subjects at school were English, Science and History. His classmates knew him as ‘The Goga-man’ due to his intense interest in insects.

“We have a compost heap outside and Johan would go to the compost heap with his jars and the tweezers he used to get out of my sewing kit. He would collect all the different types of insects he could find and wanted to know what each one was called, how it lived and what purpose it served,” Dolly recalls.

“When they asked at school, he told his teacher he wanted to be an entomologist. They were so impressed that he knew what an entomologist does and even pronounced the word correctly,” she said, adding that he was inspired by crime investigation programmes like CSI.

Johan’s favourite food was, without a doubt, his ouma’s home-baked cookies and rusks. “His classmates would try and trade him for them at school,” Dolly laughs.

The day tragedy struck

August 6 began like any other day in the Lombard household.

“After we were ready for work and school, Johan climbed in the car. When we arrived at school, he said, ‘Bye ouma.’ I said, ‘Okay Johan-tjie, I will see you this afternoon,'” said Dolly.

That would be the last words spoken between Dolly and Johan before the unthinkable happened.

“While I was busy at work, I got a phone call from the school, saying I’d better come quickly. They told me that Johan was not breathing and that an accident had happened at school. When I got to the school gate, they told me I must be calm because what I was about to see would be a shock. Johan was unconscious. There was no heartbeat. Paramedics were already attending to him. They had to shock him three times with the defibrillator before he was rushed to Madadeni Hospital,” Dolly continued.

According to Dolly, school deputy principal Jaco Schoeman told her that Johan was walking in the corridor to his class when he suddenly collapsed.

She said, however, that the school has not allowed her to view footage of what happened to Johan immediately before and during the incident.

Nonetheless, Dolly is grateful to both the school principal and deputy principal for remaining by her side the entire time that Johan was at Madadeni Hospital.

“At Madedeni, Johan never regained consciousness. He was repeatedly having seizures. The doctor on duty gave him oxygen, but didn’t know what medication to give Johan to stop the seizures. Eventually, he got hold of someone who was able to advise him as to what medication to administer. After he gave Johan the medication, he said Johan could not remain at Madadeni because he is a 12-year-old child so they had Johan transferred to the Mother and Child Facility in Newcastle. The doctor there said they didn’t have the facilities to diagnose and treat Johan, so they made arrangements for a state ambulance to transport Johan to Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. The ambulance arrived at about 08:00 the next morning and we were transported to Greys,” said Dolly.

According to Dolly, medical staff immediately put Johan on a ventilator. She believes that, had Johan been put on a ventilator at Madadeni at the beginning, things might have been very different.

However, due to the lack of oxygen to the brain, Johan sustained severe brain damage by the time he got to Greys.

“They did an MRI at Greys and discovered that the only part of his brain where there was still some activity was in the brain stem. He needed to be put on machines to keep him alive. Eventually it was just the machines that were keeping him breathing and his heart beating,” said Dolly.

The night Johan ‘died’

Two weeks later, Dolly was told by Johan’s doctors that there was nothing more they could do for him.

“They said they tried everything and this is how it is, so they asked for the contact details of his biological parents to obtain consent to switch the machines off. After the obtained consent, they explained the procedure. They were going to switch off the heart machine and then take him off the ventilator before slowly taking him off all the medication he was on. The whole process was going to take a few hours.”

That night, Dolly stayed by Johan’s side, watching him slowly fade away.

She describes it as ‘the worst experience of my entire existence’.

“The machines that were monitoring his vitals began getting slower and slower. I couldn’t believe I would have to go on with life without Johan. Watching Johan die eventually became unbearable for me and the doctors advised that I should go home and get some rest. I went over to a friend’s house in Pietermaritzburg.”

Dolly said she is uncertain who, but someone had notified the school of the doctors’ decision to take Johan off life support.

On August 19, Huttenpark Primary published a notice on the school’s official Facebook page that Johan had passed away.

This post was picked up by an international news aggregator and the news spread like wildfire, with a number of schools around the country offering messages of condolences on social media.

These posts have since been taken down.

Greys Miracle Child

When Dolly walked into Greys in the morning, she expected to be making arrangements to lay Johan to rest. What she found left her feeling confused, happy and also a little bit anxious.

“I walked into ICU and saw that Johan’s bed was nicely made up and Johan was still in it, lying on his side. He was still alive. My brain could not absorb what was happening. The neurologist said he can’t explain it. Johan was breathing on his own. His heart was beating on its own. I was so happy, but I was also feeling anxious because I wondered what kind of life Johan would have if the MRI showed that there was no brain activity.”

After a few days, Johan was moved from the ICU to the paediatric unit.

“In that unit, he opened his eyes for the first time since he collapsed. It was wonderful to see his beautiful, chocolate-brown eyes. It was the only thing I wanted in all the time we were in the hospital,” says Dolly, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Then one day, while he was laying there, he looked up at me and smiled. Within days, he progressed from being unconscious to smiling and coughing and sneezing and even laughing. We celebrated every moment, every new milestone. He was doing things that shouldn’t be possible.”

A physiotherapist began working with Johan and brought him to the point where he was able to sit up.

“The first time he sat up, was the most beautiful moment,” said Dolly.

“The physiotherapist said it wouldn’t be long before we could move Johan around in a wheelchair so he would be able to spend time in the garden, and being outside would really benefit him. I know Johan won’t be the same again, but he was recovering. Anything seemed possible.”

From miracle to nightmare

After more than a month at Greys, Dolly felt compelled to resume her work responsibilities.

“The school where I work was so accommodation and supporting, but I am Johan’s breadwinner and I needed to get back. The doctors required a guardian to stay with Johan should he remain at Greys, so they made arrangements for him to be transferred to the Newcastle Mother and Child Hospital to continue his care,” said Dolly.

Sadly, Dolly reports that Johan’s condition appears to deteriorating at Newcastle Hospital, where she says the medical staff are not only ill-equipped to handle Johan, but also lack the compassion, empathy and commitment to Johan’s well-being that she had become accustomed to at Greys.

Dolly complained that, on the night that Johan arrived in Newcastle, he was put in a children’s cot, instead of a bed, with staff saying that that was all they had available.

“Johan is tall and sometimes suffers muscle spasms. He kept bumping his limbs against the guardrails of the cot every time he had a muscle spasm. They eventually arranged a bed for Johan after I complained, but the bed is broken. It is too high and cannot be lowered. This means that I am unable to do the exercises with him that I was taught by the physiotherapist at Greys,” said Dolly.

“The mattress he is lying on is also not right. A child in his condition needs a special mattress to prevent bed sores, but they don’t have one.”

Dolly further alleged that the nurses on duty were unresponsive.

“When his feeding machine wasn’t working properly, I asked for assistance and nobody came. I used Google to figure out how to sort it out myself. I also often find, when I get there, that they haven’t administered Johan’s seizure medications, and his seizures are so painful when he doesn’t have his medication, that he cries in pain,” Dolly continued.

On one occasion, Dolly says she was informed that the hospital was out of stock of the seizure medication.

“Johan needs the medication in liquid form, because it must be injected into his feeding tube. When they ran out of the medication in liquid form, they crushed a tablet and injected that into his feeding tube and it clogged his feeding tube, making him choke. With the help of a private practitioner, I have been able to get the medication in liquid form and, now, I administer it myself, because they don’t do it,” said Dolly.

According to Dolly, Johan isn’t getting the intensive physiotherapy he needs either and his muscles are starting to atrophy as a result.

“When I asked the physiotherapist last week if she had been to see Johan, she said someone had gone to attend to him but ‘couldn’t find him’. How is that possible and why didn’t she ask someone where he is?” asked Dolly. However, at the time of print, Dolly informed the Northern Natal News that the physiotherapist had finally attended to Johan.

“He needs the physiotherapy so that the speech therapist can train him to swallow, then he can be taken off the feeding tube,” she explained.

“He is not getting the care he needs to recover. I see his muscles getting weaker and he is getting thinner. I believe Johan can recover but it’s not happening here. Miracles were happening at Greys and it feels like it was all for nothing here.”

Dolly hasn’t given up hope

“There is life in Johan. When he looks at me, there is recognition in his eyes. When I speak to him, he smiles. When I tickle him, he laughs. With the right treatment, there is so much possibility. I know he won’t be 100 percent who he was but one never knows what part of the brain might wake up and he’s already shown he is capable of miracles,” she concluded.

With the community’s support, Dolly hopes to equip her home to care for Johan in a safe and nurturing environment.

In order to do this, she needs the feeding tube and machine, the correct bed and the correct mattress, as well as the assistance of a physiotherapist and speech therapist who is willing to volunteer their time to assist Johan on his journey to recovery.

Johan collapsed and his entire life changed just days after he celebrated his 12th birthday on July 23.

The money he received for his birthday is untouched. He intended to spend it at school on Entrepreneurs Day on August 14 but never had the chance.

He was supposed to participate in the school concert soon after that, but his space on the stage was empty. Instead, this child was fighting for life.

Now Dolly is fighting for him, looking forward to the day when he will once again look her in the eye and say, ‘I love you.’

Anyone who is able to assist Dolly with a feeding tube and machine, a bed, a mattress and physiotherapy and speech therapy for Johan can contact her on 079 306 2608.

Dolly thanks Huttenpak Primary, Dr Rickerts, Magenta Ambulance Services, the dedicated staff at Greys Hospital, and Anita from Pietermaritzburg for their care, compassion, professionalism, and unwavering support during this challenging journey.

She further extends her heartfelt appreciation to her colleagues at Tugela Pre-Vocational School, Rev Pieter Koen, as well as family and friends for their prayers, encouragement, kindness and assistance.

A media enquiry to the Newcastle Mother and Child Facility yielded no response at the time of print.

Huttenpark Primary said it needed to obtain written permission from Johan’s legal guardian before it could divulge sensitive information to the media.

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