Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal private ambulance service was called to transport an elderly woman back to South Africa after she was treated at a Lesotho hospital after the vehicle she was travelling in rolled several times on the switchbacks of the Sani Pass road.
Underberg Emergency Medical Services (UEMS) spokesperson Kate Bodmann said that on Friday morning, they were called by a family member of an elderly woman who had been involved in a motor vehicle crash on the switchbacks of the Sani Pass road between South Africa and Lesotho on Tuesday.
“As per reports, the elderly woman got into difficulty on the icy corners of the pass. She requested her husband and friend travelling with her at the time, to get out of the vehicle before she attempted to conquer the corner. Unfortunately, the vehicle got into a skid and slipped off the side of the mountain. The vehicle rolled seven times before coming to rest in a stream between the switchbacks,” Bodmann said.
She said that the woman was transported privately to Mokhotlong Hospital in Lesotho with serious injuries.
However, the family of the patient contacted UEMS for assistance in evacuating the patient back to South Africa.
“(The) injured patient and family could not make contact with family in SA as they had no cellphone communication. Eventually they managed to get hold of their family who then contacted UEMS.
“A UEMS advanced life support paramedic and intermediate life support paramedic made their way up Sani Pass into Lesotho to retrieve the injured woman and evacuate her back into SA,” Bodmann said.
Bodmann said that the Netcare 911 helicopter was activated and met UEMS paramedics en route to safely airlift the patient to a specialised medical facility in Pietermaritzburg.
Meanwhile, on Friday, an elderly woman apparently lost control of her vehicle, which then left a road and crashed into a tree in Ballito, north of Durban.
Medi Response spokesperson Paul Herbst said that their advanced life support paramedics attended to and stabilised the moderately injured patient before transporting her to hospital for further care.
Daily News