When Lubabalo Msutwana realised that his friend was trapped inside a burning building, he didn’t hesitate: he kicked through a window to get to the boy.
The 12-year-old saved his friend, but his heroic actions came at a personal price – Lubabalo has severed his Achilles tendon and is now recovering at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
Lubabalo and his friend Junior were playing soccer on a field in Khayelitsha’s Site F on Wednesday when they saw smoke coming from a nearby house.
They discovered that it was on fire.
The home’s owners had escaped, but were still desperately trying to save some of their possessions from the blaze.
Junior ran inside and tried to help by ferrying some things out of the burning building.
But, said Lubabalo, when his friend tried to leave he got trapped in the house because a cupboard was blocking the front door.
The flames were spreading fast, reaching the roof of the house, and Lubabalo realised that he had to act.
“I was scared it was going to collapse on him and decided to kick through the window so he could climb through,” said Lubabalo.
Junior escaped through the shattered window, and everybody quickly realised that Lubabalo had been badly hurt.
Bleeding heavily, he was taken to a nearby hospital and then transferred to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital for emergency surgery.
“I was bleeding so much and was scared that I wouldn’t be able to walk again but the doctors told me it would be all right, and I believed them,” said Lubabalo.
Dr Sebastian van As said that Lubabalo was very lucky and was expected to make a full recovery.
- IOL
The 12-year-old saved his friend, but his heroic actions came at a personal price – Lubabalo has severed his Achilles tendon and is now recovering at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
Lubabalo and his friend Junior were playing soccer on a field in Khayelitsha’s Site F on Wednesday when they saw smoke coming from a nearby house.
They discovered that it was on fire.
The home’s owners had escaped, but were still desperately trying to save some of their possessions from the blaze.
Junior ran inside and tried to help by ferrying some things out of the burning building.
But, said Lubabalo, when his friend tried to leave he got trapped in the house because a cupboard was blocking the front door.
The flames were spreading fast, reaching the roof of the house, and Lubabalo realised that he had to act.
“I was scared it was going to collapse on him and decided to kick through the window so he could climb through,” said Lubabalo.
Junior escaped through the shattered window, and everybody quickly realised that Lubabalo had been badly hurt.
Bleeding heavily, he was taken to a nearby hospital and then transferred to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital for emergency surgery.
“I was bleeding so much and was scared that I wouldn’t be able to walk again but the doctors told me it would be all right, and I believed them,” said Lubabalo.
Dr Sebastian van As said that Lubabalo was very lucky and was expected to make a full recovery.
- IOL
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