Eleven years ago, my husband and I and our grown-up children were travelling to our holiday cottage by the sea. (The Shack!) I referred to this in a previous post.
On the trip my husband said he was not feeling well. We were travelling in two cars and my two daughters and the one's boyfriend were in the car behind us. We were pulling a trailer as well as we were going down for a month. It was the 16th December. We had all our dogs in the car and were heavily laden.
I asked my husband to let me drive but he is quite stubborn and said that we were nearly at the guest house where we were to overnight halfway to our shack.
About five kilometres before the guest house, my husband suddenly stopped the car in the middle of the N1, a major highway between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He got out of the car and all I saw before he disappeared was a huge truck screaming past us. I was sure that he had been run over and I was even more terrified when I looked behind me and saw my children in the car behind looking absolutely terrified. They had only just managed to avoid colliding with us. I got out of the car and ventured round the front and saw my husband lying in the road, not run over, but he was not breathing and his eyes were open.
I ran to him and got to him as my eldest daughter reached me. The other daughter was pulling her car up close to us and she had put her hazard lights on to warn other road users of the situation. Her boyfriend, (later to become her husband) was directing the traffic away from us.
My eldest daughter is a very good first aider so her and I immediately went to work and tried to resuscitate my husband. We tried for about 10 minutes. To no avail. His eyes were open and he was gone. I looked up to heaven and said loudly "God help me". Immediately a little red car stopped on the opposite side of the freeway and a huge man got out. He asked if he could help as he was a doctor from Bloemfontein. We said that we would be very grateful but we believed that my husband was dead.
He ran over and grabbed my husband's legs and started pumping away with my husband's legs over his shoulders. He pumped away and called out instructions to my daughter who was still giving my husband CPR. Together they worked for about 25 minutes. Suddenly a light flickered in my husband's eyes.
"We have him back" The doctor said. He then continued to work on and monitor my husband. My husband is a big man, so as my daughter's boyfriend was directing traffic far back from us, we needed to lift him into the car. We couldn't do it.
I again appealed to God for help and another car stopped and an even bigger man got out and asked to assist. He was the Chief of Police of little town called Bethuli and together he and the doctor lifted my husband into our car.
I raced to Bloemfontein with my husband and he was in ICU for three days while they battled to save him. He had septicaemia. Eventually he was well enough to travel and we continued on to our holiday after having spent three days in Bloemfontein.
Needless to say thanks be to God, he has spared my husband and he just turned 70!
On the trip my husband said he was not feeling well. We were travelling in two cars and my two daughters and the one's boyfriend were in the car behind us. We were pulling a trailer as well as we were going down for a month. It was the 16th December. We had all our dogs in the car and were heavily laden.
I asked my husband to let me drive but he is quite stubborn and said that we were nearly at the guest house where we were to overnight halfway to our shack.
About five kilometres before the guest house, my husband suddenly stopped the car in the middle of the N1, a major highway between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He got out of the car and all I saw before he disappeared was a huge truck screaming past us. I was sure that he had been run over and I was even more terrified when I looked behind me and saw my children in the car behind looking absolutely terrified. They had only just managed to avoid colliding with us. I got out of the car and ventured round the front and saw my husband lying in the road, not run over, but he was not breathing and his eyes were open.
I ran to him and got to him as my eldest daughter reached me. The other daughter was pulling her car up close to us and she had put her hazard lights on to warn other road users of the situation. Her boyfriend, (later to become her husband) was directing the traffic away from us.
My eldest daughter is a very good first aider so her and I immediately went to work and tried to resuscitate my husband. We tried for about 10 minutes. To no avail. His eyes were open and he was gone. I looked up to heaven and said loudly "God help me". Immediately a little red car stopped on the opposite side of the freeway and a huge man got out. He asked if he could help as he was a doctor from Bloemfontein. We said that we would be very grateful but we believed that my husband was dead.
He ran over and grabbed my husband's legs and started pumping away with my husband's legs over his shoulders. He pumped away and called out instructions to my daughter who was still giving my husband CPR. Together they worked for about 25 minutes. Suddenly a light flickered in my husband's eyes.
"We have him back" The doctor said. He then continued to work on and monitor my husband. My husband is a big man, so as my daughter's boyfriend was directing traffic far back from us, we needed to lift him into the car. We couldn't do it.
I again appealed to God for help and another car stopped and an even bigger man got out and asked to assist. He was the Chief of Police of little town called Bethuli and together he and the doctor lifted my husband into our car.
I raced to Bloemfontein with my husband and he was in ICU for three days while they battled to save him. He had septicaemia. Eventually he was well enough to travel and we continued on to our holiday after having spent three days in Bloemfontein.
Needless to say thanks be to God, he has spared my husband and he just turned 70!
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