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SA: Afrikaner Supermarket Massacrek hero clung to life for 72 hoursDate Posted: Sunday 29-Jul-2007[Sad. Heroes die, criminal scum walk free. Jan]
Gert Jansen van Rensburg, the hero of a Pretoria supermarket robbery who helped to save three children from a group of gunmen, has died after fighting for his life for more than 72 hours.
Earlier it was incorrectly reported that Jansen van Rensburg had died on Thursday.
The confusion arose on Thursday night when, after the family took the decision to turn off the life-support machines keeping the brain-dead Jansen van Rensburg alive, his heart continued beating.
Jansen van Rensburg was shot through the head while trying to save his fiancée, Patrys Claasen, 53, and critically wounded shopper Wilma Venter.
| 'We never gave up on him' |
Moments before, he had shoved three children out of the line of fire by pushing them out of the shop.
Jansen van Rensburg, Claasen and Venter were caught up in a bloody shooting when five gunmen stormed Dealz Family Store in Claremont on Wednesday night and opened fire before fleeing empty-handed.
Cashier Aletta Koen and her boss, Paula Oosthuizen, were shot in the legs while customer Jacqueline Grobbelaar was critically injured when a bullet struck her shoulder. It pierced her left lung, spleen, colon and small intestine before lodging in her pelvis.
Jansen van Rensburg died on Friday afternoon in Pretoria Academic hospital after his heart stopped beating.
He, along with Grobbelaar and Venter, who are still fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit, were taken to hospital after the shooting.
Claasen is receiving treatment in the same hospital after being shot in the buttocks and hand.
Oosthuizen and Koen are in a stable condition in Bougainville hospital.
Jansen van Rensburg's nephew, Shaun Smith, confirmed that his uncle had died.
He said they had been praying he would survive.
Smith said his uncle died at 3.45pm "after his heart failed".
He said: "When he died he was still connected to the life-support machines."
Jansen van Rensburg's brother, Danie, said it was clear his brother had fought hard to live. "We were fighting with him as he fought to live. We never gave up on him."
Pretoria Academic hospital spokesperson Fredah Kobo confirmed that Jansen van Rensburg had been brain-dead.
Meanwhile, the family are appealing for financial help with Jansen van Rensburg's funeral, saying that the man who has been hailed a hero did not have a funeral policy. Anyone who wants to make a donation can call Smith on 078 217 0301.
Lizette Mouton of the Pretoria Organ Transplant Division said that to declare someone "brain stem dead" the brain stem reflexes first had to be tested.
The brain stem is responsible for all the involuntary functions in a person's body, including breathing, blinking, pupil reaction, pain response and corneal reflex.
"As part of the of the brain stem reflex test we oxygenate the patient and then remove the ventilator to see if the patient can make any attempt to breathe spontaneously. This is called the apnoea test.
"Part of the test includes obtaining a blood sample to measure the carbon dioxide level in the blood. If the carbon dioxide level rises during the test, it means that the patient is not breathing.
"We also monitor the person's chest for signs that they are breathing.
"If the person's chest is not moving and there is a high level of carbon dioxide in the blood and the other brain stem reflexes are absent then this means the patient has suffered brain stem death," she said.
Explaining how a person's heart could still beat after brain stem death, Mouton said the heart was a mechanical pump that needed oxygen, nutrients and blood to keep pumping.
"As long as all of these factors are supplied to the patient the heart will continue to beat during the apnoea test," she said.
Mouton said there were, however, certain circumstances in which the heart would not continue beating, "but this might be due to certain other physiological factors".
She said: "The bad thing about brain stem death is that most patients look like they are sleeping.
"Families struggle to grasp the concept that their loved one is declared clinically dead, especially when they can see the patient's heart beating and feel that his body is still warm."
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