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Samaritan saves road-rage man
27/05/2007 22:49 - (SA)
Schalk Mouton, Beeld
Johannesburg - A passer-by saved the life of a road-rage victim on Saturday night when she pressed on his knife wound with her hands for about an hour to stop him from bleeding to death.
Bettie Kloppers, 47, a financial manager from Roodekrans, pressed on an artery in 32-year-old André Holtzhausen's neck and held it closed while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.
Until Sunday afternoon she was known to the family only as Bettie.
"She definitely saved his life," said Holtzhausen's wife, Ronel on Sunday. "A major artery in his neck was severed."
André, who was still in Krugersdorp Private Hospital intensive-care unit on Sunday afternoon, said he had been badly beaten.
Face was badly beaten
His neck was slashed with a knife after he drove into the back of someone's bakkie on the corner of Hardekool and Belladonna streets in Roodekrans.
His face was badly beaten in the attack, and he has a 7cm wound on the right side of his neck.
"I was taking out a cigarette when I saw I was about to hit the black Corsa bakkie," he said.
"I got out to apologise to the guy and to explain that it was an accident, when he laid into me."
The man continued to hit and kick André and threatened to kill him. He pulled out a knife and slashed his throat.
André said: "All I can remember is that he was tall and blonde and spoke English."
The man left André at the side of the road and drove off.
He managed to attract the attention of an elderly woman who was driving past, and she phoned Ronel.
"She told me my husband had been hurt and was lying bleeding next to the road," said Ronel, who was on the way to fetch their daughter, Mia.
Ronel was at the scene within minutes, but the ambulance took a long time to arrive.
Ronel said: "Another woman (Bettie Kloppers) arrived and she started giving first-aid. She was well prepared and seemed to know what to do."
By Sunday afternoon, Kloppers, who was on the way to her niece's birthday party with her family, still had not realised her important role in saving André's life.
She said: "It was only when the man's mother phoned me and said an artery had been severed, that I realised he could have bled to death."
'I did what we were taught to do'
She has had no medical training apart from a first-aid course.
"I did what had to be done. It was an ugly cut and no one else was helping.
"I went and sat with him and put his head on my lap and applied pressure, like we were taught to do," she said.
"I just think it's everyone's duty to help when help is needed."
- Beeld
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