LENASIA 3 October 2011, 15:00
ER24 paramedics were called to meet up with a bakkie at the local private hospital in Lenasia as the bakkie loaded a 10 year old boy from an informal settlement in the area after he had sustained extensive burns.
It is believed that a group of approximately 4 young boys were playing at the informal settlement when the 10 year old grabbed onto the live wires and he sustained extensive electrical burns. His friends apparently fled the scene leaving the little boy for dead. An electrical company employee, who was called in to assess the now faulty electricity, came across the boy and though completely shaken by what he saw, picked the boy up and rushed him towards the local hospital in his own vehicle.
Paramedics met up with the man and started treating the boy. He was extensively burnt on his face, head, chest and most of the left side of his body. He was stabilised by the Advanced Life Support paramedic and transported per ambulance to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
The electricity company employee was still shaken by the time paramedics left and he received telephonic trauma counselling via the ER24 Contact Center.
It is not clear as to what the boys were trying to do with the live electricity wires, but the man who rescued the boy stated that it appeared that they had been tampered with, but by who is not yet evident.
The police will be investigating.
Vanessa Jackson, ER24
