DURBAN - The family of a patient who was abandoned, allegedly, by state paramedics say they are living in fear following their encounter with the emergency personnel last week.
For Mbali Sikhosana, 24, from Umlazi, “shock’ is the fitting word to describe her feelings towards the behaviour of paramedics who were dispatched to her home on Sunday after her sister Thandeka Qwabe, 38, got sick.
“We are shocked by how paramedics would just abandon a sickly and fragile person like that. It is not like they did not see her, they did, but left her anyway,” she said.
Sikhosana said two paramedics were dispatched to her home after her sister who suffers from a life-threatening illness became unwell.
Upon their arrival, the workers were informed that Qwabe was in bed, inside the house and in a terrible state. The paramedic then allegedly asked Sikhosana how she imagined her sister would get inside the vehicle, to which she replied by asking what the role of paramedics was.
“He then got angry and shouted that I was disrespecting him and that it was no longer their jobs as paramedics to get out of the ambulance, nor were they even supposed to be have responded to the scene without the police escort and that we should get our neighbours to assist us, or they would leave,” said Sikhosana.
She said that she called her neighbours to assist them with getting her sister down the stairs and into the ambulance while carrying her with a blanket, but this was met with another struggle due to the patient’s weight.
Sikhosana then requested for the ambulance personnel to lend them their stretcher, however, they allegedly declined and accused them of wasting their time.
“We had to make my sister walk to the ambulance and she began crying, complaining that her entire body was sore.
“We still asked them for assistance while my sister was still lying down and the paramedic told his colleague again that we were wasting their time - and drove off,” said Sikhosana.
She said that they then had to request for an e-hailing taxi to a clinic at Umlazi’s U Section before being transferred to a hospital by another ambulance.
Due to fear of revenge from the two accused, Sikhosana has gone into hiding.
“I do not feel safe because these paramedics were very rude and heartless. I fear that they might come back and harm us but we have moved to another place, which we still feel is not safe enough as it is close to where everything happened,” she said.
She said that her sister was born six months prematurely and had a heart problem due to one valve being dysfunctional. She also suffered from kidney and liver failure, tuberculosis and memory loss.
She said that she wished for the accused to be suspended, and for her family to be compensated.
“My sister is self-employed, now the business is stuck, while I also need to look after her children and mine,” said Sikhosana.
Ntokozo Maphisa, spokesperson for the KZN Department of Health, said they were attending to the clinical needs of the patient, who was getting the required level of care in hospital.
Maphisa said that the two paramedics implicated in the matter had been placed under immediate precautionary suspension to allow an investigation to proceed without hindrance.
Maphisa said that they were disturbed by the allegation and that they were opposed to the emergency care provider’s main objectives.
He further commended those who brought the matter to the attention of the department’s executive and senior officials on Facebook.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE