Charmaine Keevy is no stranger to rescuing. She rescued a dachshund, named Georgie, a wiener dog that went on to help her rescue a newborn baby.
Now people are hailing Charmaine and Georgie as heroes saying that it was a “miracle” that the child survived.
Keevy was walking Georgie one morning in Port Elizabeth, South Africa when Georgie began barking at storm drain. Keevy then heard what she thought was a cat meowing.
She was shocked to hear a baby’s cry when she got on her knees to see what was down the drain.
Keevy flagged down a car for help and Cornie Viljoen decided to stop and help.
He grabbed a steel bar from his car. He and Keevy use it to pry a heavy concrete slab open that was covering the storm drain so they could come inside.
Viljoen then dropped 6-feet down into the drain and was stung by a colony of red ants.
“When I got into the hole it was higher than my head and it was so narrow that I had to go down on my knees and I couldn’t bend over so had to feel down for the baby below,” he told DailyMail.”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.”
Thankfully the baby had avoided the red ants.
“‘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,” he said.
He yelled to Keevy to call emergency services and the baby was rushed to the hospital.
The baby was found naked with its umbilical cord attached and she was treated for hypothermia and respiratory problems. Police determined that the only way the baby could have gotten down the drain is if someone removed the concrete cover and placed the child there.
‘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.
Keevy said it was a blessing that she was able to identify the baby’s cries.
“I honestly believe I was meant to find that baby by God as I usually take a different route on my dog walk but for some reason went another way. I cannot help but feel that there is some sort of a plan and a purpose for that little girls’ life – it is a miracle without a doubt,” she said.
“When Georgie first started barking at the noises I thought it was a cat but then I realized it was a baby and people must have thought I was mad because I was trying to stop all these passing cars. I don’t know what would have happened if this guy had not stopped to help me.”
The baby was named Grace April. Social worker Pamela Rubushe said the baby must have been in the drain for at least a few hours.
They said she was found just before hypothermia set in.
“I hope if the mother does not come forward that Grace April finds a loving family and makes her mark on this world,” Keevy said.
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