Spokesperson of Mediclinic Bloemfontein, Carl Buhrmann, says Werner van Pletzen, a general practitioner, and his 16-year-old daughter, Lara, are on ventilation machines in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. Buhrmann says Lara sustained, among others, a lung injury but is showing good progress. 

This comes after Van Pletzen’s bakkie overturned on a gravel road near the Rustfontein Dam near Botshabelo on Saturday. ER24 spokesperson, Russel Meiring, says paramedics and Fire Services arrived at the scene to find the bakkie lying on its side in the middle of the veld.

Upon assessment, a man was found lying trapped inside the wreckage. A teenager was found lying outside the vehicle. Meiring says specialised jaws-of-life equipment was used to free the man from inside the vehicle. Both patients were treated and received advance life support intervention after they sustained serious head injuries, says Meiring. They were airlifted to hospital.

Buhrmann says Van Pletzen’s son, Werner, and a friend were also in the bakkie. They were not seriously injured and were not admitted to the hospital. The cause of the accident is still unknown.

OFM News