A toddler who was accidentally run over by her farmer dad’s truck has miraculously survived – and is now walking, talking and playing once again.
Shaun Steyn was driving a pick-up on his family farm when he unknowingly hit his 20-month-old baby girl Jana, leaving her with catastrophic head injuries.
In a frantic race for help, Shaun and his wife Kelly rushed their child to hospital.
Jana spent weeks in intensive care and underwent major surgery.
Doctors have described her recovery as a miracle.
“Now it all feels like a fever dream,” Kelly, from Koster, South Africa, told Need To Know.
“It feels unreal that something like this happened to us.
“You always think it only happens to other people.”
The tot spent weeks in intensive care following the incident before being admitted to a rehabilitation centre.
There, doctors began the slow process of monitoring her injuries and supporting her recovery.
Kelly said: “We steeled ourselves for the possibility she wouldn’t be her old self.
“But she’s exactly as she was before the accident.
“Just as curious and friendly as always.”
Jana currently wears a protective helmet as doctors wait for her skull to heal fully.
Kelly said: “She handles the helmet better than I expected.
“Sometimes she wants to take it off but I explain to her how she needs to wear it to protect her head.”
The accident happened after a normal family morning on the farm.
Shaun and Joshua had climbed into the truck, known. asa bakkie, to start the day’s work while Kelly was getting ready with Jana inside.
But in a split second of distraction, the toddler slipped out of the house.
Shaun was already reversing when the vehicle went over something he assumed was a rock.
When he stepped out, he found his daughter beneath the truck.
He said: “I didn’t think it was Jana because she was with Kelly.
“When I heard her crying I went ice cold.
“I didn’t see the wound at first – she was lying with her little face on the ground.
“Blood was streaming from her head and I could see a piece of her brain.”
The parents phoned Potchefstroom Hospital, which was 70 miles away, and began the desperate drive.
Paramedics reached them part-way and treated Jana on the roadside before transporting her to hospital.
She was then airlifted to Johannesburg where surgeons operated for four hours to remove debris lodged between her skull and brain.
After the operation, Jana was placed on a ventilator and kept sedated to help her heal.
Kelly said: “To see your child like that, connected to tubes and wires, was terrible.
“You just wish you could take away their pain.”
But doctors soon saw encouraging signs.
Scans showed no brain trauma, and once Jana was stable, she was transferred to a rehabilitation centre where her progress stunned the medical team.
Two months later, Jana was finally home.
Kelly said: “It was amazing to see how quickly she recovered.
“She seemed to get healthier by the hour.
“It’s wonderful.
“It’s just so nice to hear the children’s laughter in the house again.
Shaun says the horrifying ordeal, which occurred in August 2024, has brought the family closer together.
He said: “It made me realise, as a father, what’s really important – your kids.
“We sometimes forget this in the mad rush of life.”
The ordeal has strengthened their marriage too.
She added: “It was an accident, and it happened – but I gained new respect for Shaun.
“He was calm the whole time.
“There were many times when I was in tears and he would comfort me.
“We don’t blame each other.”
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