Tiny Tornado’s big miracle

[caption id="attachment_100306" align="alignright" width="304"] Mom Vuyo Gasa-Pepeta and son Lungako. Picture supplied.[/caption] Mom and dad, both doctors, tell Estelle Ellis about the harrowing near-drowning of their joyful young son. WHEN beloved Port Elizabeth paediatric cardiologist, fierce advocate for the city’s children and devoted dad, Dr Lungile Pepeta, received a string of please-call-me messages as he was waiting to board a flight to Port Elizabeth last month, he wanted to ignore them.

It was the close of a getaway weekend with his wife and fellow doctor, Vuyo Gasa-Pepeta. Their kids were left in the care of family members and their trusted nanny.

“My wife said ‘phone and find out what they want’.”

It was news every dreads.

His 18-month-old son Lungako had been found floating in the family’s swimming pool, not breathing and ice-cold – and Life St George’s Hospital doctors were fighting to save him.

Lungako is a joyful little soul. He has not started talking yet, but when his dad picks up his cellphone, Lungako mimics him exactly – using the television remote. He is a big Rihanna fan, but will quickly switch the television off if there is rap or hip-hop.

He is all smiles and twinkly eyes when his mommy picks him up.

The family have nicknamed the busy little boy “The Tornado”.

“When you get news like that, you can’t think the worst. You have to keep hoping,” Pepeta said.

Fellow pediatrician Dr Johani Vermeulen, who specialises in oncology, later said they had all been “mute with terror”.

As doctors they knew the statistics – almost nobody made it out of a near-drowning like that unscathed and alive.

“We were so scared that we couldn’t even pray,” Gasa-Pepeta said. “I phoned a friend of mine who is also a doctor so that my boy would have someone there if he was scared. Thank God so many others were praying for us. I just remember that I couldn’t hear what the pilot said. I kept asking

parent how long is this flight still going to be?” In Port Elizabeth, the couple was rushed to hospital, where Dr Wayne Jones was on call.

“Wayne is the doctor I trust to look after my ‘heart babies’ when I cannot be around,” Pepeta said.

As Jones and several nurses worked on Lungako, Pepeta’s phone did not stop ringing.

“People were phoning from everywhere with advice and prayers,” Pepeta said.

Gasa-Pepeta said: “All anybody wanted to know was how was his brain? “I couldn’t care about his brain. I just wanted my baby back.”

By the time the couple got to the hospital Lungako was breathing by himself.

Gasa-Pepeta said as they started hearing what had happened, she had known that God’s hand was over her child.

Pepeta’s nephew, who was trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), had been at the house, by chance, as he was helping to change a tyre on a car.

“He was here when they found Lungako. He got Lungako breathing again and kept him breathing until they were at the hospital,” Gasa-Pepeta said.

Pepeta said he was completely humbled by the support and prayers for his family.

“Never in my life did I think that so many people even knew us,” he said. “Everybody started prayer groups for our son – the nurses at Dora Nginza Hospital, Livingstone Hospital, Provincial Hospital, Life St George’s Hospital and Netcare Greenacres.

“Everybody was praying. We are so incredibly grateful.”