'This really damaged me, I doubt I'll ever recover'

A Katlehong man says Gauteng Health is to blame for his brother's death who waited hours for an ambulance after being hit by a car.

A Katlehong man says Gauteng Health is to blame for his brother's death who waited hours for an ambulance after being hit by a car.

Published Nov 29, 2018

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The Ekurhuleni District Health said it was investigating events that led to a young man dying after allegedly waiting four hours for an ambulance  after being hit by a car.

The incident came to light after the man's older brother, Thando Khanya Mahlangu, wrote a Facebook post about how he had to witness his badly injured brother succumbing to his injuries while waiting for an ambulance at Goba Clinic in Katlehong where he had been rushed to just after the accident.

The lack of oxygen at the clinic, waiting hours for an ambulance and dealing with paramedics who declined to transport his brother to hospital citing not having been trained to deal with patients who were that badly injured are some of the reasons Mahlangu said contributed to his brother dying.

"The nurses from Goba Clinic tried their best to save his life. I blame the Gauteng Health Department because they failed us. How can a clinic have no oxygen? This shows that nobody cares about us.

"My brother had four hours and possibly a 1000 chances to survive but because of the delays we lost him.

"This really damaged me and I doubt I'll ever recover." Mahlangu concluded his post.

On Tuesday, the DA's Jack Bloom read out the Facebook post at the Legislature in the presence of Gwen Ramokgopa, MEC for Health in Gauteng, and implored her to investigate and take action.

The Star also put questions to the department to understand what happened that day and also answer to the allegations made in the post.

However, the department referred the questions to the acting Chief Director of Ekurhuleni Health District, Dr Zolela Ngcqwabe.

Although Mahlangu says in his Facebook post that the incident occurred on November 24, in her response Ngcqwabe said the clinic only reported the matter to the district on November 28.

"The matter is being investigated," she said.

She also denied that the clinic did not have oxygen.

"According to the report received from the facility manager, oxygen was provided to the patient."

Regarding why it took so many hours for the ambulance to reach the injured man, Ngcqwabe said they were still waiting for a report from the call centre.

According to Mahlangu's post captioned "24 November 2018 — The worst day of my life", his brother was hit by a car and quickly rushed to the clinic which is a minute away from where the incident occurred. 

Mahlangu said he arrived at the clinic in five minutes and found his brother in the emergency room bleeding heavily, struggling to breathe and "not responding at all". 

"That's where all things got messy. The clinic had no oxygen. We were told the ambulance is coming.

"We waited an hour but there was no ambulance. We kept asking about its whereabouts but we got no answers. We started panicking and decided to call the ambulance whilst we were inside the clinic but they told us they can’t send the ambulance for a person who’s already inside the emergency room and that the nurses should call it."

He said an hour went by while waiting for the ambulance and they asked the clinic to release his younger brother so that they could drive him to hospital themselves.

"They (nurses) said they were not allowed to release the patient unless they leave by an ambulance."

Mahlangu said they then drove to Hlahatsi Fire Station, which is about 3km away, to request an ambulance.

"After two hours the ambulance appeared travelling at a very low speed, no siren and the driver was on the phone.

"We were so relieved to see them and that he (brother) would be rushed to the hospital for better treatment but little did we know that the worst was about to happen. The paramedics who arrived were not trained for patients who were so badly injured, we were told. So they had to call another ambulance. That meant more delays.

"To cut the long story short, it arrived after an hour. They (paramedics) arrived too late because on their arrival my brother gave up on life."

The Star's attempt to speak to Mahlangu was unsuccessful.

The Star

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