63-year-old Charmaine Keevy and her rescue Dachshund Georgie decided that it was their turn to pay it forward one day while on their daily walk. What happened next left everyone in complete shock.
During a routine morning walk, Georgie was not acting normal. He was entranced by a storm drain and began barking. Charmaine thought she heard a faint meowing sound coming from the drain. She decided to investigate. She bent down to check to see if there was a cat stuck inside but gasped at what was actually in there. It wasn’t a cat – it was a human baby.
Since the drain was covered with a concrete lid, Charmain needed to get help. She ran back to the road and flagged down the next person to pass. Cornie Viljoen was the man who helped Charmaine. They used a crow bar to pry the concrete lid open. The drain was at least 6 feet deep, but Cornie acted on his adrenaline and jumped right in.
There were red ants everywhere and he suffered some stings on his legs, but he never even gave that a second thought – his only concern was rescuing that baby.
“The red ants were stinging my legs but then I felt this baby’s leg and then saw the baby and I realized that this was a crime scene so I took a flash picture and handed my phone up to Charmaine. I didn’t know if the baby was injured so I tried to pick her up very carefully and very slowly and she was so small. I just wanted to hold her for a while but I knew that she needed urgent medical help.”
Fortunately, the red ants had not reached the baby. Thank God, because the baby was naked and still had the umbilical cord attached. The duo quickly called local police. The police and ambulance arrived and took the baby to the hospital.
According to police, the only way for the baby to have gotten in that drain was for someone to purposefully place her there and cover the drain with the concrete.
“There is a possibility that the person who did this may have come from outside the area and placed the child there. We are appealing for witnesses and the mother of this baby to come forward,” police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said.
The nurses and doctors at the hospital treated the baby for hypothermia and respiratory problems. They determined she was in the freezing water drain at least a few hours.
Charmaine believes it was fate that brought her and Georgie to the baby because she normally takes a different walking path. The baby has been named Grace April and is doing okay.
We are so glad Grace April survived this horrific ordeal. We are thankful to Charmaine and Georgie for their quick thinking.
