A Promise Made – & Kept!

Danie was determined to run Comrades again after his accident

- Gabisile Ngcobo

HE COULD feel the sweat pouring down his face. It felt as if his lungs were going to burst and every step seemed to require superhuman effort.

But Danie de Wet had come too far to give up. Entering the home stretch of the Comrades Marathon the 37-year-old forced himself to pick up his pace to a steady jog. He was going to do it, the thing so many people had believed would be impossible for him ever to do: he was going to complete his seventh Comrades Marathon.

Three years ago, lying in a hospital bed with his life hanging in the balance, it seemed unlikely he’d ever be able to run a marathon again. Back then, having Danie was determined to run Comrades again after his accident spent 13 days in an induced coma, he was told by doctors he was lucky to be alive.

This was after he’d been involved in a freak mining accident in which a nearly 2m-long industrial crowbar penetrated his body, skewering him like a kebab as it penetrated his left thigh, ripping through his upper body to emerge from his left shoulder.

The horrific incident at Sibanye Gold mine in Carletonville near Johannesburg made national news headlines (YOU, 13 August 2015).

As the X-ray showing the extent of Danie’s injuries went viral people shook their heads in wonder. How was it possible for anyone to survive such a grisly accident?

Danie, a mining engineering supervisor, was 3,5km underground when it happened. He’d been trying to unblock a water pipe when he lost his footing, falling on to a 1,8m-long crowbar. The sharp point tore into him, going right through his bowel, small intestine and left kidney.

At Netcare Milpark Hospital in Joburg two medical teams worked frantically to save his life. But though doctors told Danie he faced a long road to recovery he refused to allow the extent of his injuries get him down.