Ntando Makhubu
PRETORIA: Emotions ran high as families, straining their necks and peering across the parking area, tried to spot loved ones among the injured carried from ambulances into Steve Biko Academic Hospital yesterday morning.
Relatives had been waiting for close to two hours for the injured, flown back overnight from Lagos, Nigeria, where they had been among the scores trapped when a guest house at The Synagogue, Church of All Nations collapsed on September 12, killing 84 South Africans and a number of other people.
Among them were two children orphaned in the disaster, and a third child. The children, understood to be girls, had minor injuries.
Twenty-six South Africans were to have boarded the South African Air Force C-130 Hercules in Lagos, but one remained behind.
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe, speaking after the aircraft landed at Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria, said he did not know why this person had elected to stay behind.
The aircraft had been expected at 7am, but landed at about 10.45am. Radebe attributed this to problems with ambulances in Lagos.
“I understand this is the biggest evacuation effort by the air force since (1994).”
The injured were escorted by police to the hospital – where social workers asked their families to wait at a distance.
“We would rather you waited until they have been checked by doctors and are settled in their wards,” a social worker said, adding that they could be traumatised by what they saw.
The first two ambulances – advanced life-support vehicles – swept up behind police officers on motorbikes. Relatives rose to their feet as the ambulances reversed close to the entrance of the emergency unit, and two stretchers were taken inside.
Anticipation mounted among the relatives as other ambulances arrived.
“We appeal for patience and co-operation. Your relatives will be assessed, and once they are ready for visitors you will be allowed in,” Deputy Minister of Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu told the families.
The three children were being given special attention.
“Two have minor scratches and the other minor injuries.”
Some of the injured needed urgent surgery, so relatives would not be able to see them immediately.
Three had limbs amputated in Lagos, while others had fractures. One had kidney failure.
Because Nigeria had a number of airborne diseases, the injured “are on a 48-hour lockdown”, Bogopane-Zulu said.
Relatives would have five minutes with those well enough to receive visitors, but could not hug or kiss them. Those unable to see their loved ones would be accommodated in a Pretoria hotel for the night. “We will take care of you… you can be here again tomorrow.”
But this only increased the anxiety of some relatives, who said their fears would abate only when they saw their injured loved ones.
Some wept, saying they had not had contact with their relatives, while social workers, priests and others moved among them, offering prayers, hugs, and words of comfort.
Che O’Connor said her fears had been put to rest – her grandmother had escaped with a broken wrist. “We were frantic with worry. We watched the footage of the collapse and doubted anyone could survive, and then – when so many had died – my grandmother came out alive.”