Young boy: Then the power cable fell on him and the electricity threw him away.
[00:01:27.11]
Interviewer: What would you say, William, to someone else that this happened to?
[00:01:33.09]
William: I can tell them about my story.
[00:01:33.27]
William: They must be strong.
[00:01:38.11]
Title:Go Trolley Films presents
[00:01:41.05]
Young boy: Straight or where?
[00:01:42.15]
William: We are going left!
[00:01:45.10]
Title: A Jo Higgs Film
[00:01:47.14]
Sascha: Are you going to turn by yourself?
[00:01:49.21]
Sascha: Good.
[00:01:51.21]
Sascha: Nicely done William!
[00:01:55.15]
Title: DRIVING WILLIAM
[00:02:24.02]
William: That's it!
[00:02:25.26]
Sascha: Watch where you're going!
[00:02:28.12]
William: Drive!
[00:02:31.01]
William: Get some grapes someone!
[00:02:35.13]
Sascha: William is charismatic, outgoing, humourous, very clever, very curious. He is determined, he's very wilful. He is funny.
[00:02:59.23]
Sascha: I've never met anyone like William.
[00:03:12.29]
Sascha: Your foot's not on the brake is it?
[00:03:18.25]
William: Look there, where's the petrol?
[00:03:21.12]
William: Is there petrol?
[00:03:23.16]
Sascha: Ja, there's petrol.
[00:03:29.11]
Sascha: Its not starting!
[00:03:40.14]
Sascha: Getting to know William has been some of the most profound and magical times of my life.
[00:03:48.03]
Title: Hex River Valley, Western Cape, South Africa
[00:03:48:06]
Singing: Sing Hallelujah, sing Hallelujah!
[00:03:51.10]
Title: The Church
[00:03:54:15]
Singing: I keep the King alive with my voice.
[00:03:59.12]
Singing: Sing Hallelujah, sing Hallelujah!
[00:04:06.22]
Singing: I keep the King alive! Sing Hallelujah! I keep the King alive with my voice! Sing Hallelujah, sing Hallelujah! I keep the King alive. I keep the King alive.
[00:04:37.00]
Title: Red Cross Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
[00:05:03.06]
Sascha: I'm Sascha Archer. I'm an Art Therapist from the States.
[00:05:06.28]
Title: Sascha Archer, Art Therapist
[00:05:06.14]
I have been in the Burns Unit for the last six months volunteering as an Art Therapist.
[00:05:13.18]
Sascha: The first time I met William it was about a week after he had been transferred from the ICU to the Burns Unit. At that stage, he was still learning to walk. So he was still pretty sedentary in that he was not really communicative. He was quite depressed at that time.
[00:05:34.20]
Sascha: I could just see in his eyes that he also really wanted to do some art. And I thought "Absolutely. Why not?"
[00:05:44.14]
Sascha: Directly behind us is the dressing room where all the Burns patients get their daily dressing changes which is probably one of the most traumatic parts of being a Burns patient. Its very, very painful. And actually I found that when I do the Art Therapy with the children, they have so much anxiety building up to the dressing changes because they know how painful its going to be that I will either go in and do art with them either right before they have a dressing change or directly when they come out because its a great distraction. And its so closely linked with play that its fun for them and it takes their mind off of all the difficulties of being in hospital.
[00:06:30:12]
Sascha: Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy. Its a form of counselling that combines psychotherapy and creative expression through the arts. And its really a non-verbal form of communication and counselling. And often time the kids will tell the stories they don't want to talk about, they're too traumatized. The story will often come out in the art work.
[00:06:56.01]
Singing: Is a baboon? Is a baboon? Who of you is a baboon?
[00:07:04.09]
Sascha: The first time I took William home was at Christmas for a visit with his family. He lives there with his aunt and uncle and cousins. It was here on the farm where William happened to be playing one day with his five year old cousin, Rompie.
[00:07:20.03]
Wayne (William's cousin): Rompie and William, it's cousins.
[00:07:21.14]
Title: Wayne Smith, William's Cousin
[00:07:22.08]
William: My cousin.
[00:07:24.01]
Interviewer: What's his name?
[00:07:24:02]
William: Rompie
[00:07:26.12]
Wayne: They was all day together.
[00:07:29:05]
Rompie: Hey, William! You've got yellow teeth.
[00:07:32:07]
William: And you?
[00:07:34:21]
Rompie: I can hear what you're saying!
[00:07:35.25]
Sascha: William, leading up to that point, he had a fascination with birds and birds' nests and he liked to collect nests. He's auntie had told me a story about him saving some baby birds and putting them in a box and trying to kind of nurse them back to health.
[00:08:06.17]
Interviewer: What's your name?
[00:08:11.01]
Young boy: Rompie.
[00:08:12:06]
Rompie: And this one's Roman.
[00:08:13:06]
Rompie: Roman.
[00:08:13:29]
Rompie: Roman Botes.
[00:08:15.25]
Interviewer: And Rompie, that day. did you see that thing?
[00:08:26.22]
Rompie: When he climbed on the power cable?
[00:08:28:16]
Interviewer: Yes.
[00:08:29:08]
Roman: He did see it, yes.
[00:08:30.14]
Interviewer: Was it a terrible thing?
[00:08:34:08]
Rompie: I don't know.
[00:08:37.25]
Roman: You must say "yes".
[00:08:41:03]
Interviewer: Do you remember?
[00:08:43:10]
Interviewer: Not?
[00:08:47.21]
Rompie: Where those grapes?
[00:08:53.21]
Rompie: That branch was here wasn't it Roman?
[00:08:56.25]
Roman: Yes, at this row.
[00:09:00.25]
Rompie: It's those black grapes.
[00:09:05.29]
Sascha: So that particular day, William and Rompie, the five year old cousin, were out of the home playing on the grape farm where they live. And there is a number of high-voltage power pylons on the farm property.
[00:09:21.06]
Interviewer: So where we going?
[00:09:23.24]
Interviewer: Hey, William?
[00:09:25.20]
William: To the pole.
[00:09:27.01]
Interviewer: What's at the pole?
[00:09:30.12]
Interviewer: What are you going to show me?
[00:09:35.17]
Wayne: I will show you how William come in that accident. And where William go up there when William shocked there. I'm going to show you that.
[00:09:52.11]
Sascha: On this particular pole, there was a bird's nest that William spotted and he decided that he wanted to climb the pole and fetch the nest. The last thing he remembers is reaching out for the nest and, after that, all he remembers is waking up in hospital. So, his five year old cousin has witnessed the electrocution and the fall.
[00:10:17.09]
Wayne: The nest, it was there, by the cable.
[00:10:17.12]
Interviewer: Right here?
[00:10:22.26]
Wayne: Then William will go to get the nest.
[00:10:26.15]
Interviewer: And that's the same nest William?
[00:10:28.28]
William: Yes.
[00:10:32.25]
William: So I climbed up there. I wanted to get the nest off.
[00:10:36.04]
William: Then the electricity pulled me up and threw me aside.
[00:10:39.28]
William: I fell.
[00:10:43.10]
Wayne: Then William is out.
[00:10:45.24]
Wayne: William is unconscious.
[00:10:54.20]
Sascha: There you are!
[00:10.59.06]
I'm Rukaiya Mowzer, I'm the Physio working in the Burns unit.
[00:11:03.29]
William: You're breaking my leg!
[00:11:05.26]
Rukaiya Mowzer: I'm not breaking your leg.
[00:11:07.10]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Glynn, the other Physio, is also involved in alot of his rehab.
[00:11:12.14]
William: Glynn!
[00:11:14.02]
Sascha: He came to the ICU and his injuries were substantial. He had a charred, completely charred, right arm which is the arm they had to amputate all the way too the shoulder. And he had severe burns on his left arm. They were actually able to save the partial limb. He had a partial amputation right below the elbow.
[00:10:40.27]
Rukaiya Mowzer: How did it go with your exercises?
[00:11:45.07]
Rukaiya Mowzer: How many times did you do your exercises?
[00:11:48.25]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Did you forget your exercises? (laughs)
[00:11:51.09]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Did you just play at home?
[00:11:53.03]
Sascha: He had a number of surgeries. He had to go to theatre many, many times because they were trying to save as much of that arm as they could. But they kept having to, to take off and cut more and more and more just because of how substantial the burns were.
[00:12:12.17]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Right up.
[00:12:14.03]
Rukaiya Mowzer: All the way up, all the way, all the way!
[00:12:17.09]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Another time up!
[00:12:19.01]
Rukaiya Mowzer: All the way, all the way!
[00:12:19.26]
Rukaiya Mowzer: Very good!
[00:12:21.11]
William: Bubbles.
[00:12:23.13]
Sascha: Its been told to me by members of the nursing sisters that he's the only child with those type of severe injuries that they've ever witnessed that's come in here and been so incredibly brave and never, ever cried during dressing changes.
[00:12:43.16]
Sascha: He's just incredibly brave and strong and that's something William's always said too: "I must be strong. You must be strong".
[00:12:59.27]]
Title: Cape Town, South Africa
[00:13:03.07]
Sascha: Someone who's taken a keen interest in William is Clinton Smith from Cosmesis Advanced Cosmetics Studio. Cosmesis makes prostheses for the film and television industry.
[00:13:16.16]
Sascha: Clinton's offered to make a series of prostheses for William over the years, depending on what his needs are and as he grows.
[00:13:27.26]
Female voice: Wow!
[00:13:31.27]
Sascha: The team's going to begin by making a crude prototype of what they call the prosthetic sock so that they can test William's needs and capabilities. Developing the prostheses is going to be a complex and expensive process and really it will depend upon future support and funding.
[00:13:52.00]
Clinton: We're actually making a difference in someone's life so the reward is way bigger than you would do in a film.
[00:13:59.28]
Title: Clinton Smith, Cosmesis Advanced Prosthetic Studio
[00:13.59.29]
So that's the reason why we've started going into more medical stuff now and helping people who can't actually afford prosthesis.
[00:14.10.10]
Clinton: It's a prototype which means that it's not the right one.
[00:14:18.00]
Clinton: It's like that so we can test it.
[00:14:31.12]
Clinton: We want to test now to see what the weight is doing because this is a different product which is a lot heavier. Move it down.
[00:14:46.06]
Clinton: And then we need to look at the stronger spring. And obviously something more lightweight.
[00:14:56.01]
Okay, I'm going to leave this now. Does it feel heavy?
[00:15:00.15]
Clinton: We're trying to see with you doing everything yourself how we can drive this spring on the inside, opening and closing , like a claw.
