A one-year-old Oudtshoorn girl is recovering at home after a terrifying near-drowning that saw her older brother pull her from the family pool and her mother race her to hospital.
Níke Kruger had been to a routine one-year milestone check-up on Tuesday, 18 August, and her mother, Bianca, said the child was healthy and that everything appeared normal.
Within two hours, however, the family’s day changed completely.
Back at their home, Bianca was helping her sons, Renier, 10, and Marlo, 7, with their homeschooling. Níke was in the study, only a few metres away, behind a barrier that was intended to keep her in the room while the family worked.
Bianca believes Níke managed to push the barrier aside and crawl out of the study without being noticed.
“She must’ve figured out she could push the board away and slip through it while we were busy,” Bianca said.
The family pool was about 15 to 20 metres from the study. It took only a short time for the toddler to reach the water.
Then came the scream that alerted the family.
Renier Finds His Sister
Renier found Níke in the pool. Bianca said the toddler was floating on her back, with her mouth, hands and feet already blue.
“He told me her head was back, under the water,” Bianca said.
Renier pulled his sister from the pool and began screaming for help. Bianca ran outside and saw her son trying to get the toddler to sit up.
“He tried to get her to sit up, but she was very limp and floppy. Then I grabbed her from him. Her eyes were open, but it didn’t look like she was completely there,” Bianca said.
She immediately began trying to revive her daughter.
Bianca said Níke eventually began breathing and screaming again, bringing a moment of relief in the middle of the panic.
“I just remember she eventually started screaming. The relief of hearing that in that moment is all I remember,” she said.
The mother said the first moments were filled with uncertainty as she tried to work out whether her daughter was breathing properly and how badly she might have been affected.
“You hope what you’re doing is right, that what you’re doing helps. When I realised she was breathing, there was relief, but also fear,” Bianca said.
She was aware that a child who regains consciousness after being under water may still face serious complications, depending on how long the brain was deprived of oxygen.
Without waiting, Bianca changed Níke’s wet clothes, got into the car and drove to hospital. Renier held his sister during the journey.
“I just told him to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep,” Bianca said.
Race To Hospital
By the time they reached the hospital, Níke was extremely cold. Bianca said her daughter’s temperature was so low that it would not register on the thermometer.
Medical staff placed the toddler under an emergency thermal blanket while Bianca lay skin-to-skin with her to help raise her body temperature. Warm air was directed under the blanket as nurses monitored her oxygen levels.
“Her oxygen levels were a bit low, and they put her on an oxygen machine,” Bianca said.
Bianca only managed to contact her husband, Reinhart, after a doctor had examined Níke. Reinhart, a chief aircraft maintenance engineer, had been in a meeting and had not answered the nurses’ calls immediately.
Bianca said she did not want to alarm him before she knew whether Níke was stable.
“I didn’t want him to be stressed. I wanted him to see that Níke was okay when he arrived at the hospital,” she said.
Because Oudtshoorn does not have a paediatric unit, Níke was transferred to Mossel Bay for further treatment.
The journey took about 45 minutes, which Bianca described as an agonising wait as she watched the oxygen monitor.
“It was 45 minutes of pure hell. I watched her oxygen levels the whole time and every time we went over a bump, the machine made a sound,” she said.
At Mossel Bay, Níke was admitted to the high-care unit. The doctor who assessed her had expected that she might need a ventilator.
Instead, he described the child as an “absolute miracle”, according to Bianca’s account.
The family was told that there was no water on Níke’s lungs and that she had not suffered brain damage. She was able to recover quickly, and Bianca said her daughter now plays, laughs and runs normally.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her,” Bianca said.
Family Faces The Trauma
Although Níke’s physical recovery was rapid, the experience left the family dealing with the emotional impact of what had happened.
Bianca said she generally coped well under pressure, but that the full effect of the incident emerged later.
“Afterwards my wheels came off a bit and I felt sick,” she said.
The family attended counselling and consulted a pastoral psychologist to process the trauma.
Bianca said the counselling sessions included exercises in which the family visualised the scene and worked through the emotional impact of seeing Níke in the water.
She said Bianca, Reinhart and Renier separately described seeing Jesus in the water during the sessions, without first discussing their visions with one another.
For the family, the experience was deeply meaningful.
“It was incredible, because it’s definitely a supernatural event,” Bianca said.
That belief is part of the family’s account of how they made sense of the incident. The medical outcome, however, was assessed by the doctors who treated Níke, who reported that she had no water on her lungs and no brain damage.
When the family returned home, Reinhart carried Níke to the pool and asked her whether Jesus had held her and where he had been.
Níke was still only one and was largely babbling. Bianca said the toddler then clearly said “water”, a word she had not heard her say before.
“My husband and I just stood there shocked, looking at each other, and realised this is bigger than us,” Bianca said.
A Child’s Quick Recovery
Today, Níke has returned to normal toddler activities, according to her mother.
She plays, laughs and runs, and Bianca said there is no sign of lasting physical or neurological harm from the incident.
The family’s experience is also a reminder of how quickly a toddler can move from a supervised space to a dangerous area, particularly around swimming pools and other bodies of water.
Children can be mobile before they can understand the risks around them, and a barrier that appears secure may not remain effective once they learn how to push, climb or move around it.
The Kruger family had taken steps to keep Níke in the study while Bianca helped her sons with schoolwork. But the toddler found a way out while the adults were occupied only a short distance away.
The incident has left the family grateful that Renier heard the scream and reached the pool in time to pull his sister from the water.
His actions gave Bianca the chance to begin trying to revive Níke and get her to medical care quickly.
For Bianca, the memory remains difficult to revisit, from the moment Renier found the toddler to the long transfer to Mossel Bay and the hours spent watching her oxygen levels.
But the family’s story now has a hopeful ending. Níke survived, recovered and returned home to the people who had feared they might lose her.
Bianca said the family would continue to work through the emotional effects of the near-drowning while celebrating the child’s recovery.
The little girl who was found in the water now runs and plays again, while her family remains grateful for the quick response that brought her back from the edge.
