Daily Sun (January 16 2015) - NTHABISENG stood in the queue waiting to get medicine for her three-year-old son, Orapeleng.
Then she realised that Orapeleng was not with her. She looked down to see where he was - and then she heard a scream . . .
SHE LOOKED UP TO SEE THE BODY OF A SMALL CHILD FLYING THROUGH THE AIR.
"I saw my son falling off the balcony and there was nothing I could do to save him," Nthabiseng told Daily Sun.
Nthabiseng Motsumi (25) from Braamfischer in Soweto said she felt helpless when she stood in the queue outside the Hamberg Hospital in Florida and saw her son falling from the first floor balcony. In a tragic turn of events he had wandered into the building, found his way onto the balcony and then fallen off.
"He hit the ground with his head," she said.
"I rushed to him but I was told I shouldn't touch him because it could injure him further."
She said she stood helplessly as the paramedic examined Orapeleng and told her that it seemed as if his skull was cracked.
"I felt as if my world had collapsed," she said.
"My son was in pain but there was nothing I could do to help him. I couldn't even hold him in my arms and tell him everything was going to be fine."
Orapeleng was rushed to Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Joburg.
That was on Tuesday, 6 January.
"He was in ICU for the whole week," said Nthabiseng.
"I went to the hospital every day. I held his hand and spoke to him in the hope that he could hear my voice and understand what I was saying to him."
She said she told him to wake up so they could go home and play his favourite songs.
"I spent the whole week praying by his bedside. I hoped that God would answer my prayers and save my child," she said.
But then, on Monday, Nthabiseng heard the news that no mother ever wants to hear.
"I knew something was happening when I saw missed calls from the hospital," she said.
"I rushed to the public phone and called the hospital, but they said I must come to hospital urgently."
She said she was hoping that her prayers had been answered and that God had granted her wish for a miracle but it wasn't to be.
"When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my baby was dead," she said.
The name Orapeleng means "someone who prays".
"Just like his name, he loved to pray. He would copy me when I was praying," she said.
She said it is wrong for a parent to bury a child.
"It is too painful."
"Only God knows why I lost my only son, he was the most beautiful thing in my world."
She said on the day he fell, she told Orapeleng to eat his lunch.
"But he smiled and said he would eat when we got home," she said.
"I never dreamed he would never come home."
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