Help Find Stranger Who Saved Her Life: A 10-Year Search for Hero

Help Find the Stranger Who Saved Her Life: A 10-Year Search for a Hero

Photo Credit: EVG Kowalievska | Pexels

The kindness of strangers! A woman is rallying South African social media to help find a good samaritan who saved her life ten years ago.

Johannesburg, South Africa (10 October 2024) – It can be very easy to forget how deeply connected we all are but every once in a while, something happens that reminds us of our shared humanity and the profound impact one person’s kindness can have on another. These moments bring ubuntu, our South African spirit of togetherness, to life in the most beautiful ways.

This is the story of Lisa Dyboll and how a stranger’s compassion may have saved her life.

In August 2014, Lisa was grappling with overwhelming grief. Just weeks before, she had experienced the heartbreaking loss of her twin girls in a miscarriage, shortly after the unexpected death of her father. The weight of sorrow was immense and heavy, and although she felt unwell, she attributed it to the emotional strain she was enduring.

That day, Lisa had been dropped off at the Nicolway Shopping Centre (now Winifred Mandela Precinct) by a friend. She planned to do a bit of window shopping before her husband would pick her up for a doctor’s appointment later. However, as she walked through the parking area, she suddenly felt dizzy. Before she knew it, she collapsed on the pavement.

Her breath became shallow, and everything around her blurred.

At that moment, fate intervened in the form of a stranger driving an older model gold Mercedes Benz. Lisa recalls seeing a young man with dreadlocks rushing to her aid. He didn’t hesitate. Kneeling beside her, he helped her sit up and began talking to her, gently coaxing her back into consciousness. Despite her confusion, she remembers him insisting on helping her into his car, where a young girl, possibly his daughter, sat in the back seat. While Lisa initially resisted his suggestion to take her to Sandton Mediclinic, the man respected her wishes and drove her to The Campus, where her husband worked. Along the way, he even stopped at a garage to buy her a Coke, thinking she might be experiencing a diabetic episode. The kind stranger safely delivered her to her husband, who then rushed her to the Mediclinic.

Once at the hospital, it was discovered that Lisa had multiple blood clots in her lungs. Doctors immediately rushed her into the ICU, explaining that she was fortunate not to have had a stroke and that the timing of her arrival was critical.

Without the intervention of this caring man, the outcome could have been far more tragic.

Nearly a decade has passed since that life-saving encounter, but Lisa has never forgotten the kindness of the Good Samaritan who stopped to help her when she was at her most vulnerable. She often wonders if he remembers that day as vividly as she does. She’s tried different means over the years to try to find him, but she’s decided to cast that net further and asked Good Things Guy if our readers could assist in helping her track him down so she can thank him properly.

“I wanted to ask if you could help me track down my Good Samaritan who helped me out in a really tricky situation and who saved my life that day,” Lisa wrote to us. “It’s a long shot, but us Saffas are used to defying the odds.”

Here at Good Things Guy, we believe in the power of community and the strength of the human spirit. So, we’re asking our readers to help.

If anyone knows of a man who might live or work in the Fourways/Bryanston area, who drove an older gold Mercedes Benz in 2014 and has ever retold a story about a woman he helped at Nicolway (now Winifred Mandela Precinct), please reach out to us. Lisa would love to reconnect with the stranger who gave her the greatest gift – his kindness… and her life.

Stories like these remind us of the ripple effect a single act of compassion can create. And if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that when we come together, incredible things can happen.

Let’s help Lisa find her hero and celebrate the beauty of Ubuntu, alive and well in all of us.