THE CMR START

The birth of the CMR idea

Imagine going to wake your “sleeping” child in the morning and finding her blue, cold and unconscious! 

That is exactly what happened to Ronél Smolders when she went to wake Leanne – her 10-year-old daughter on Wednesday 10^th May 2000, at around 6:30am.

Leanne had recently had her tonsils removed and had been prescribed a gargle to control possible infection and to reduce pain.  Unbeknown to the doctor or the family, Leanne was allergic to the medication and her throat slowly swelled – while she was asleep – to the point where she literally could not breathe. When her mother tried to wake her she was probably very close to death. 

Aware that there was no emergency medical service in the area, Ronél immediately called her family doctor, Dr Steven van der Merwe.  Fortunately he was able to take the call and said he would come. 

On his way to the Smolders’ house, he called David Behr – an advanced life-support paramedic who worked in the area both professionally and as a volunteer.  David was fortunately close by and was at the Smolders’ house in minutes.  By the time Dr van der Merwe arrived - a few minutes later - Leanne was already breathing and had regained her colour.  A possible disaster has been averted!

Much later, when discussing the incident, all the parties agreed that Leanne – and the Smolders family – and been very “lucky”.  Lucky that a paramedic was close by, and lucky that their doctor was able to react and not busy attending to another case.  Since there was no emergency response service at the local hospital and no ambulance based anywhere South of Wynberg – the potential for disaster was high.  Luck had been on their side.

Later still, each of the parties pondered – how many other people had not been so “lucky”?  How many people would gain considerable peace-of-mind just to know that a local emergency medical service was available?

A month or two later Ronél discussed the formation of an emergency medical service with Dr van der Merwe.  Establishing an emergency medical service was – she said – absolutely imperative.  Literally a matter of life and death! Since the chances of a government of municipal service becoming available were recognized as slim, the only option was to investigate the possibility of starting one as a private subscription service.

The idea of CMR had been born… and the CMR service started, with David Behr as the first paramedic, on the 1^st April 2001.