'Spiked drink' victim meets his new son

"Hey, my broer," 21-year-old Travis van Niekerk says, greeting his eight-day-old son.

Until two days ago Van Niekerk was in intensive care recovering from drinking what is believed to have been spiked alcohol at a nightclub.

In the early hours of Sunday last week, when Declan was being born, Van Niekerk was rushed to Arwyp private hospital in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, convulsing after a few drinks at a nightclub in Boksburg.

He does not remember much about the night other than being slapped by a paramedic to keep him conscious.

Blood tests showed a barbiturate, a type of sedative, in his system. No recreational drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine or heroin were found in his blood.

Six days later, on Friday, Van Niekerk woke up in intensive care and his parents explained what had happened.

Van Niekerk sobbed when they showed him a picture of his newborn child.

His parents explained it was not his fault that he had missed the birth.

The mother of the baby, Cha-Mari Canha, had waited for him to join her at a hospital after she went into labour, but instead was told he had been rushed to emergency.

She said she had been worried but had had to focus on "bringing her baby into the world".

Yesterday, she held Declan proudly and said she just "couldn't wait for Van Niekerk to meet his son."

Van Niekerk said he now worries about his friends going out drinking. He would restrict himself to beer because if somebody spikes a beer it will fizz over and beer bottles were easy to cover with one's hand.

Van Niekerk lost his sales job while in hospital and is to start job- hunting soon. He says he wants to study to become a paramedic.