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My sister woke me from my sleep at 4AM in New York on Sunday morning with a phone call from Johannesburg. I was so shocked by what she said I wept after she had hung up. Then I rang my parents in the UK as I had been requested to do, to tell them what was happening. My sister's eldest son K had been in a car crash, he had been cut from the wreckage and flown to hospital by air ambulance, the trauma specialists were working to stabilize his condition and scanning his brain for signs of brain damage. Two of K's best friends were already dead.
Now on Monday It does appear that K will live and hopefully make a full recovery. But obviously it is still a worrying time for all of us. Especially for my Sister and Brother in Law. They really thought they had lost him when there appeared to be no record of him at any of the hospitals. He had arrived in Baragwanath - Soweto General, the biggest hospital in the world, as an unidentified male, so searches for him showed up nothing.
Such a horrifying experience for for any family.
But given the circumstances we are lucky, when I think of the families of the two dearly loved friends who have died, it makes me weep all over again.
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Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS .......... I made this photograph of K ...... 5 years ago in England ....... under much happier circumstance.
PPS ......... I wrote this two weeks back but did not post it till now ........... because only now have I finally managed to speak to K on Skype myself .......... so now I really do believe ... because of the evidence of my own eyes .... that he is going to be fully OK. But of course the loss of his two wonderful friends remains desperately, desperately sad for him, and for all of us, but the pain and sadness of their parents and families I can only begin to imagine.
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.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....