“I was picking up the kids from Krugersdorp, to have them with me for the long weekend, when this happened,” he said.

“We were travelling on the highway when I suddenly heard a loud sound and asked my daughter, in the back seat, if she was fine.”

11-year old Eden told her father she was fine and when he turned to ask his son, Caden, who was sitting in the front seat if he was injured, he realised what had happened.

“He was slumped and I saw a hole in his head and then he started bleeding profusely,” Slabbert said.

The father tried to stop the bleeding by holding his little boy’s head while rushing to the nearest hospital.

“I knew I had to stop the bleeding and, while making my way to the nearest hospital, I noticed an ambulance in the fast lane and made my way to them to alert them that we needed assistance,” he added.

The ambulance stopped and the paramedics immediately attended to the boy, who was then taken to hospital where he has been in an induced coma.

“The doctor told me that Caden had suffered a skull fracture and huge head trauma and, although they wanted to attempt to wake him from the coma on Sunday (May 4), he said he still would not be able to breathe without assistance and so he is still in the coma,” Slabbert said.

Eden has been at her father and brother’s side since the incident.

According to her father, she asked to be brought to the hospital to be near her brother.

“She became quite withdrawn after the incident and she went home to her mom, but asked if she could join me in hospital to be near her brother; she is talking a lot more, but will need counselling to get through this,” said Slabbert.