Publications
Partners
It's been a long road to recovery for paramedic Riëtte du Plessis (35), and she still has a long way to go, but she's thrilled to be able to walk again.
Four months ago Riëtte was riding her motorbike when she was involved in a collision with a bakkie.
The accident left her with a fractured pelvis and spine and broke two ribs, but she still managed to call her ambulance service colleagues, and police, to the scene of the crash in Kempton Park, on the East Rand.
The past few months have been incredibly hard for Riëtte, who lives in Kempton Park, but there's finally a glimmer of hope – last week, during her first round of physiotherapy, she managed to take her first steps since the crash on January 19.
“I felt a lot of pain but I also felt great,” she says proudly.
READ MORE | How a North West paramedic's inspirational story made him a hero in a Japanese textbook
Her body is healing, but she's haunted by what happened that fateful day.
She'd in fact just left the hospital after accidentally slamming an ambulance door on her finger, and was on her way home when a motorist driving a bakkie suddenly made a U-turn in front of her.
Riëtte tried to avoid the bakkie as it turned, and the next thing she remembers is lying on her stomach under the bakkie.
“I really can’t remember much about the impact. I was in and out of consciousness. I remember gaining consciousness and trying to push myself up. And I couldn’t because the bakkie was extremely heavy.”
Despite all that, Riëtte, who has been a paramedic for 15 years, managed to call for help.
“I heard people around me and they pulled me out from the bakkie. I turned on my back and put my left leg on the bakkie’s tyres. And then I asked the crowd for my phone and I called my own ambulance, and the police,” she says.
Riëtte’s wife, Elsje (29), received a call about the accident while she was at work. At the time she worked as a receptionist at a medical facility.
“I drove to the scene and I was in shock,” she recalls.
Riëtte was in bad shape, and having been sedated by paramedics, she looked "as if she'd died", Elsje says.
At the hospital, "the doctor said if she was a smaller person she would have died, as she wouldn’t have been able to survive the impact”, Elsje says.
“They had to strap her pelvis together just to keep it intact.”
Riëtte spent a month in hospital where she received several blood transfusions and had surgery to stabilise her pelvis with plates and screws.
Despite her excruciating pain, Riëtte tried to convince herself that her injuries weren’t all that bad.
“Even though I knew exactly what was happening and how critical it was, I still tried to convince myself it was all okay."
The reality hit hard when she was discharged.
“When you realise you can no longer do the small stuff, you’re very embarrassed and vulnerable."
She couldn’t walk, go to the bathroom or get up from her bed without help. She was wheelchair-bound and because of her pelvic injury she was told not to put any weight on her left leg.
Elsje quit her job to care for Riëtte at home and the couple moved in with Riëtte's sister, Jeanli van der Westhuizen (41).
“I was scared when she came home because I wasn’t prepared for it. I don’t think anyone could be prepared for something like this because your whole life changes overnight,” Elsje says.
As Riëtte’s primary caregiver, Elsje has had to lift and bathe her spouse, and she admits it hasn't been easy.
“I struggle with my upper body because I have to be strong for her but some days I just can’t,” she says.
Their relationship has been strained, Riëtte says, "but we are working through it".
“I think some days I put a mask up to avoid people asking me, 'What’s going on?' Sometimes I’m just sad because I am sad. Sometimes I’m sad because of the situation. Then I’ve got questions. Why did it happen to me? Would everything have been different if I'd left 10 minutes later?’’
She recently started going for counselling, and is on antidepressants, as well as sleep and pain medication.
However, it isn’t all doom and gloom.
Last week she went for an X-ray which showed she was on the mend, and she got the go-ahead for her first physiotherapy session where she managed to walk with the aid of a crutch.
“I can do five steps, but I still feel embarrassed and vulnerable."
She's proud of the progress she's made, and adds that she can now use the bathroom without needing help.
It might take up to a year for her to get back on both her feet, her doctor has said, but she is eager to get back to work.
The paramedic has been on unpaid leave since February. Her job still pays for her medical aid and she’s trying to claim from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
It's been a tough couple of months, but she is grateful for the support of relatives, her community and, most importantly, Elsje.
“I wouldn’t have made it without her.”
