‘Miracle man’ gives his medal to hospital

THE “miracle man” who completed his first Comrades Marathon since being impaled on a 1.8m crowbar has handed his medal to the trauma surgeon who played a leading role in saving his life.

“This is not only from me, I am speaking on behalf of so many patients treated at Netcare Milpark Hospital,” Danie de Wet said just days after completing the ultra-marathon, as he handed over the framed medal to Professor Kenneth Boffard, director of its internationally renowned trauma programme.

“We can’t stop saying thank you, not only for saving my life but for giving me a second chance to be a father, a good husband and share my story of hope with others. Miracles can and do happen.”

De Wet, an engineering supervisor, was airlifted to hospital after being impaled on a 2m metal industrial crowbar, or “gwala”, 3.5km underground in Carletonville.

He had been using the gwala while washing out an underground dam when he suddenly slipped and the metal bar penetrated his body, entering the groin and exiting just below his shoulder blade.

Streamlined interventions saw De Wet walking out of the hospital 19 days later.

Boffard said: “Towards the time when we were getting ready to discharge him, I spoke to Mr De Wet and told him: ‘Now you’re getting well again, I’m going to give you a challenge. Before the accident, you were a runner and super fit, and the problem of being well is that it comes with responsibilities’.

“One of those is my challenge: ‘I challenge you to run the Comrades again’… and he actually took me seriously.”

He presented the De Wets with a glass sculpture with a plaque engraved: “Recognising Daniel and Liezl de Wet and their family who accepted a challenge and were an example to all on the road to recovery”. – Staff Writer