An ordinary shopping trip with her daughter turned into a life-and-death ordeal for ICU sister Geraldine Crookes, who shielded her child from gunfire before using her medical training to save the life of a wounded shopper during last week’s brazen jewellery store robbery at a Pietermaritzburg mall.
A week after the dramatic incident, Weekend Witness tracked down Crookes to hear her account of the terrifying ordeal — one marked by fear, quick thinking and remarkable courage under pressure.
Crookes, an ICU sister at Life Healthcare’s Hilton Life Hospital, had stopped at the mall to buy groceries before visiting her mother when armed robbers stormed a jewellery store, sending shoppers scrambling for cover.
While protecting her daughter from the gunfire, Crookes also helped two traumatised women remain calm before rushing to the aid of a customer who had been shot in the leg.
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“We were at the frozen section just across from where the man was shot when we heard an unusual noise. Nothing really big, but unusual. Then this man went running past us, and I stopped him and asked what was happening.
“He said there were people with guns in the shop. That’s when the shooting started. I told my daughter to go to the opposite end of the shop and duck behind some bins. I couldn’t do anything about a stray bullet, but I could make sure she wasn’t an actual target. Then I went and crouched behind her.
“There were more gunshots. At one point I even phoned my husband because we did not know what was going to happen to us,” said Crookes.
Crookes said there were two women whom she and her daughter helped to remain calm during the ordeal. “A lady across from us was starting to act strangely and I was worried she would become hysterical and draw attention to us, so I crawled to the juices, got an apple juice and crawled to the lady.
“She was starting to hyperventilate, so I sat with her and we concentrated on breathing normally, and in between, I got her to drink some juice.
I saw another lady who was rocking back and forth and I went to her. She told me her family had just lost people due to gun violence, and that this was bringing up trauma for her.
“I said we were going to be fine. Just as she got up, we heard that someone had been shot,” said Crookes.
Leaving her daughter to comfort the two women, Crookes rushed to assist the injured man, who told her he had simply gone to the shopping centre to buy a loaf of bread.
Using whatever equipment was available, she administered first aid until paramedics arrived. “The man had a through-and-through wound just below his knee.
“A tourniquet was applied using a rag. I grabbed the trolley disinfectant bucket and took the lid off to use the inside surface of the lid as a ‘clean surface’. I was given two bandages, a small bottle of wound spray and gloves.
“I pulled out all the disinfectant wet wipes and used the liquid left behind to wash both the entry and exit wounds, tore one bandage in half, used one half to plug each wound and the last bandage was used to wrap the wound as tightly as I could,” said Crookes
He was starting to sway a bit, so we elevated his leg and got him to sip on some apple juice.
She said that when paramedics arrived, she briefed them on the man’s condition before returning to check on the woman who had been hyperventilating.
“At that stage the paramedics arrived. I gave one paramedic a rundown of what I had done and then went back to my daughter, who was still calming the lady who was hyperventilating.
“We made sure she was fine and then left. I would love to know the condition of the man who was shot,” said Crookes.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Crookes said what stayed with her most was the way strangers came together to support one another in a moment of crisis.
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One customer was wounded after four armed suspects stormed a jewellery store and fired shots to gain access to display cabinets.
