Aysen and her team are “on their feet all night” at the facility, she says, stitching up bloody wounds but at the same time she describes the joy of saving a life. A tiny radio plays softly in the background, keeping the team motivated and awake during their gruelling shift. Aysen is not one to shy away from blood or the reasons why it flows so freely in this notorious part of the Western Cape.
“I get to do magic with my hands,” she says. Victim after victim arrive on stretchers and, no matter what, the medical team have each other’s backs. There is no such thing as “taking a break” because, she says calmly, “all the patients have to be seen to”.
According to the latest crime figures by Statistics South Africa, Cape Town had the highest number of reported assaults in the country over the 2014 – 2015 period – a whopping 38,780 cases.
Mitchells Plain contributed significantly to this, and drugs and alcohol played a big part in the assaults. In 40% of home assault cases and 33% of street assault cases, the perpetrator was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
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