'Gobsmacked' medical staff save cyclist with knife in his head
WARNING: This story contains graphic images.
The last time the medical practice of former Springbok Dr Brendan Venter was this shaken up was when filmmaker Leon Schuster visited about two years ago. Before that, it was when former Springbok Bryan Habana dropped in about seven years ago.
This time their daily routines were disrupted by something far more serious than celebrities, when Shaun Wayne walked in on Monday morning with a knife lodged deep in his head.
Venter, who was not at the practice at the time, told TimesLIVE: "We were all like: 'Wow! What did the patients say?' Everyone was gobsmacked!"
A colleague loaded Wayne into her car and took him to Hottentots Holland Hospital in Somerset West. He was then transferred to Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville, where the knife was removed and his wound was stitched up.
He is being kept under observation at the hospital but has seemingly suffered no permanent brain damage.
Wayne's mother Sandra verified on Wednesday that he had undergone surgery but declined to make any further comment.
Wayne was cycling to the restaurant where he works in the Strand when he was attacked and stabbed at a known hotspot on Gordon’s Bay Drive.
Former world champion cyclist Wimpie van der Merwe wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that Wayne was attacked in the same spot where he and a fellow professional cyclist were attacked last week.
Van der Merwe told TimesLIVE that he and Elize Jansen van Rensburg were attacked last Wednesday around 5.40am.
He said three men crossed the road in such a way that they had just enough room to cycle between the men and the pavement. Van der Merwe was cycling in front of Jansen van Rensburg.
"At the moment we passed them, they pulled her off the bike and flung her against the pavement."
Jansen van Rensburg’s helmet broke and her cellphone was stolen.
Van der Merwe got off his bike and started chasing them on foot. One of the men threw the bicycle down, before they started to regroup for a second attack.
Van der Merwe started waving cars down. An off-duty security guard and motorcycle stopped and the men fled.
Jansen van Rensburg broke her pelvis, hip and coccyx in the attack.
Van der Merwe claims there are daily attacks on cyclists and pedestrians on Gordon’s Bay Drive. He said it is hampering the popular cycle route between Gordon’s Bay and Rooi Els.
"Our access to that route is being severely restricted by the hotspot because you don’t know what time of day someone is going to attack you.
"A few scoundrels are giving our area a bad name."