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In less than two years she's stared death in the face twice and survived to live the tale.
In August last year JayBee Cloete from Heidelberg, Gauteng, nearly succumbed to the deadly Delta variant of Covid-19. And more recently, the 62-year-old lived through an attack in which her tenant's dog ripped her legs to shreds.
The incident happened a few weeks ago and she's grateful to be alive, JayBee tells YOU.
“I’m back in my own home. I sat in the sun in my lounge this morning.”
She underwent four operations on her legs after she was mauled by a mixed-breed pitbull belonging to one of the tenants on the smallholding where she lives with her husband, Patrick (63).
JayBee’s first brush with death was in August last year when she contracted the Delta variant of Covid-19. She was hospitalised for three weeks and was on oxygen support for 10 days.
“I can’t remember much about it. For the first nine days, I lay in the Covid ward among men and women and I saw how they were brought in and taken out. I saw the machines flatline.”
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Then a few weeks ago came her second near-death situation.
“I was home alone. Patrick has been working in Bronkhorstspruit for the past two years and is only home on weekends. My son, Andries, who also lives on the smallholding, left for work early that morning,” she recalls.
“We have three flats on the property that we rent out. The furthest one is empty at the moment, a young couple and their daughter live in the middle one, and a single woman lives in the flat on the far left.”
She says that when the couple moved into the central flat in January, they asked if their two dogs could come too. The dogs – a pitbull crossbreed and a husky – were mostly kept inside and only came into the fenced yard when the couple let them out.
“He said the dogs were there to protect his wife and child,” JayBee says.
That morning the man, who wasn’t home, sent a message saying their electricity was off. It wasn’t time for loadshedding, so JayBee went to the flat to see what the problem was.
When she got there, she saw the front door and security gate were both open, as well as another gate in the double-fenced area. She didn’t see anyone and entered the first gate, calling for the woman.
“I thought the dogs were inside the house because I assumed the man had told his wife I was coming.
“The wife came out but the next thing I knew, the dog was standing between us. I firmly told him, ‘No!’ But when I took my eyes off him to tell the woman to put him inside, he jumped and pushed me to the ground.
“I was on my back and just trying to keep him from getting to my face and throat. When he moved upward, I grabbed him by the ears and pulled him away. He started biting and chewing at my legs – the right leg, then the left. He growled and bit and wrenched and shook.”
JayBee noticed a broom on the porch. “I told her to hit him with the broom, that he was hurting me."
The woman turned the hosepipe on the dog and sprayed him with water but the canine wouldn't let go.
The attack was relentless and a desperate JayBee screamed for help. She begged the woman to pull the dog off her, but her tenant seemed frozen on the spot.
Then JayBee's gardener, who she prefers not to name, came to investigate because he'd heard the other dogs barking.
“It was just a blessing that he picked up a pipe or a stick or something. But when he got to me, the dog went for him too.”
This gave her the chance to get up and flee while the gardener managed to ward off the dog without sustaining serious injuries.
JayBee could barely step on her left foot and was certain it was broken. The tenant helped her to the house.
“I sat down on the edge of the bath because the blood was pouring from the wounds.”
She took off her ankle boots and jeans and was shocked to see the state of her legs.
“I realised I was in trouble. It was serious."
A sudden calm came over her. She took pictures and sent it to Patrick so he could come home.
“He realised it would take him too long to get to me, so he called Andries. When my son came into the bathroom, I said, ‘Don’t get a fright – it’s not pretty.’ I heard him gasp. He picked me up like a child and carried me to the car.”
The family don’t have medical aid but when her son said the words “dog bite”, staff at the Life Suikerbosrand Hospital in Heidelberg “just made way for him”.
She had a serious wound above her right knee and her left leg was mauled from below the knee to her ankle. The ligaments in her left foot were seriously damaged.
JayBee had her first surgery the following night and again two days later to clean the wounds and reattach the muscles and ligaments.
She was discharged the following week, but she’d barely been home a day when the wounds on her left leg became septic. She was readmitted to hospital, this time to the Life Springs Parkland Hospital in nearby Springs, where she had two more surgeries.
“It’s been a wild ride. That night I begged the doctor – I told him I didn’t care what he did, I just didn’t want to lose my leg.”
JayBee will need skin grafts on both legs. She’s attached to a device that helps drain the wounds and her sister-in-law has come from the Free State to help.
“My greatest hope is that I'll be able to drive again, but I don’t know if that’s going to be possible,” JayBee says.
Although she needs to use a wheelchair and a walker to get around, JayBee says her heart is filled with gratitude.
The tenants are still living on the smallholding, she adds. “We haven’t evicted them. But we asked them to have the dog put down to prevent something similar happening to someone else.”
She’s been told the animal is no longer on the property, but she’s left the matter in the hands of the police and the SPCA.
For now, she’s focusing on healing.
“I just decided I wouldn’t hold a grudge against them. The grace of God is enough.”
• Despite several attempts, YOU was unable to reach the dog’s owners for comment.
