MUST READ: Teen miraculously survives 5-storey fall

Carmen Botha was on a school excursion in the Hartbeespoort Dam area on 21 January when her mother, Gerna Botha, received a phone call from her teacher to say her daughter had fallen the equivalent of almost five storeys and had been critically injured. Because of the remote location, it took paramedics of Hartbeespoort EMS about 20 minutes to reach Carmen.

“While waiting for the helicopter to arrive at Netcare Milpark Hospital, I did not want to face up to the possibilities. I was terrified and unsure of what life was going to throw at us,” said Carmen’s mother. But she said she immediately realised the severity of her daughter’s condition when she saw her being rushed from the Netcare 911 helicopter to the trauma unit.

“As the helicopter landed at the hospital, I could see that they were busy resuscitating Carmen. We were not allowed to see her and the hospital had arranged for a trauma counsellor to be on hand to guide us through dealing with our daughter’s condition,” Gerna recalled.

Life-saving treatment

Emergency care practitioner, Jared McDowall who was part of the Netcare helicopter crew on the day, said when he arrived with his colleague, Adrian King, Carmen was very pale and in severe pain. On examining her, they suspected a spinal injury as Carmen could not move and had no feeling in her lower body.

“We loaded her into the aircraft. En route, we were giving Carmen fluids intravenously. Throughout it all, her blood pressure remained dangerously low. She was not responding and we, therefore, prepared an adrenaline infusion as there was a gradual decrease in her oxygen levels and she was deteriorating fast.

“Carmen went into cardiac arrest eight minutes away from Netcare Milpark Hospital and we immediately started resuscitating her in the aircraft,” McDowall said.

“We managed to get her heart pumping again with the aid of adrenaline. However, her heart was beating too slowly. Despite our very best efforts her heart stopped again and we had to shock her to stimulate her heart rhythm.”

Once the aircraft had landed, Carmen was rushed to the trauma unit.

Netcare Milpark Hospital trauma programme manager, Rene Grobler, said Carmen’s injuries were extensive. She had a ruptured spleen, bruised lungs caused by severe trauma to the chest, a liver laceration, a fracture of the spine, internal bleeding and broken bones. Her survival probability was calculated to be at a very low 16 percent.

“The first few hours in a trauma situation are the most crucial. No efforts were spared to save Carmen,” said Grobler.

Now, 30 days later, the teenager is awake and talking, and has made great progress. She recently underwent a further procedure for her spinal injuries.

The road to recovery

When McDowall and King went to visit Carmen a week ago they could not believe the incredible recovery she had made.

Gerna described Carmen as a very confident, mature, happy, friendly, independent and beautiful child with a very close relationship with her family and especially her older brother.

“Without faith, we would not have come through this. We are privileged that we have experienced an amazing miracle: The right paramedics were dispatched to the scene and they made all the right calls, including that Carmen needed to be airlifted. She was taken to the right hospital with the right specialists there to treat her,” Gerna said.

Carmen has since had a back operation and will later be transferred to a rehabilitation centre for further treatment, her mother added. While she does not yet have feeling in her lower limbs, the doctors are waiting for swelling in her spinal area to reduce, as this will give a better indication of whether she will make a full recovery.