Waiter catches falling boy
2007-09-03 07:23
Johannesburg - A waiter may have saved the life of a pre-schooler who fell between 6m and 8m from the first floor of the Cresta shopping centre in Johannesburg.
The four-year-old boy is being treated for serious facial and head injuries in the paediatric ICU of Netcare Garden City clinic.
The child's parents don't want his name made public.
He could have suffered fatal injuries on Saturday night if Jericho Sithole, a 26-year-old waiter at the Golden Spear Spur in the centre, had not broken the child's fall, by trying to catch him.
'I knew he'd fall'
"I just knew the child was going to fall," Sithole, of Berea, told Beeld on Sunday.
Sithole and other Spur workers were standing waiting outside the restaurant on the first floor of the shopping centre at about 22:00 to welcome patrons.
He saw the boy clambering up the side of the escalator to the first floor.
The pre-schooler's parents were apparently dining in another restaurant, the Cape Town Fish Market, and had lost track of him.
Sithole walked to the escalator "because I knew if he fell it could mean his death".
Just as the child reached the top of the escalator he slipped and fell.
"I didn't think twice, I just stretched out my arms in front of me and tried to catch him," Sithole said.
"The impact knocked us both down. I landed on my haunches."
The child fell right over Sithole's arms and hit his head on the ground.
An off-duty rescue services worker who heard people screaming stormed out of a restaurant to help Sithole and the boy.
The boy was stabilised on the spot until Netcare 911 personnel arrived.
Nick Dollmann, Netcare 911 spokesperson said the rescue workers had protected the boy's spine as a precautionary measure and supported him on a stretcher.
They rushed the child to the clinic where he received further treatment from a trauma team.
Sithole said he had not thought about his own safety.
"I would do it again," he said.
A family spokesperson told Beeld that they would consult doctors on Monday before issuing a statement on the incident.
They had personally thanked Sithole.
- Beeld