Rescue Warrant Officer Jacques Meyer was photographed carrying the lost 2-year-old down from the chilly mountainside after a two-day search for her.
Panic filtered through the community of Bergville last week when a two-year-old went missing from outside a family friend’s home. The toddler had wandered off and the family immediately started searching the area for the girl. She spent the night out in the cold while the community continued the search.
The next day they contacted local law enforcement to assist in searching for the little girl.
It was guessed that she might have wandered off towards the Bergville Mountain. Members of the Pietermaritzburg, Okhahlamba and Ladysmith K9 Search and Rescue Units were called out on Thursday morning and searched the area until 10 pm that evening before ending the search for the night.
The two-year-old had now spent two full nights in temperatures below zero. By Friday morning, the search and rescue teams upped their efforts and thankfully found the child alive. She was found, cold to the bone but otherwise doing well.
A source on the scene spoke with journalists and confirmed that finding her alive and well was a miracle.
“We had been looking for around an hour and we were walking up one of the mountains near the family house when one of the other search teams heard a child crying,” said the source.
“We all went up, and there she was, near the top of the mountain.”
Rescue Warrant Officer Jacques Meyer carried the child down the mountain and back into her mother’s arms. It was confirmed that the reunion was an emotional one, the mother wrapped herself around her child and cried tears of relief and joy.
The child was taken to a nearby hospital to be checked up after the ordeal. The image of officer Meyer has gone viral and social media users are calling him a hero but the efforts should be shared by all the men and women involved in the search. This is a happy ending thanks to the K9 unit’s joint efforts.
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