Faces of Covid-19

'Life is just not fair': family of Eastern Cape nurse who died of Covid-19

01 July 2020 - 06:02 By Mpumzi Zuzile
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Sindiswa Madonci, the third nurse from Livingstone Hospital in PE to die from Covid-19.
Sindiswa Madonci, the third nurse from Livingstone Hospital in PE to die from Covid-19.
Image: Supplied

She died like a soldier with a gun in her hands.

That's how the brother of Sindiswa Madonci, a 58-year-old nurse at Port Elizabeth’s Livingstone Hospital, remembers his sister, who died of Covid-19 earlier this month.

Masixole Zinto said life will “never be the same” and the family was devastated by her death.

Zinto believes his sister contracted the virus at work as none of her family members have tested positive.

“I’m still not used to the fact that she is no longer with us. She was a pillar of this family. I’m today a councillor because of her hard work and sacrifices,” he said.

Zinto described his sister as a selfless person who sacrificed herself by working on the front line.

“Even when we advised her to stay at home because of her age, she told us no one will be able to take care of her patients better than she does. She loved her patients that much.”

Madonci was admitted at a private hospital in Port Elizabeth in May after falling ill and testing positive for Covid-19.

She died on June 8 – the third nurse from Livingstone Hospital to succumb to the disease.

“She had phoned me and said she was not feeling well. At that time she was at her workplace,” said Zinto. “The following week she was admitted in hospital and now she has died. Life is just not fair.”

Madonci, a mother of three, studied nursing in Keiskammahoek, where she worked at the local SS Gida Hospital before moving to PE.

There she worked at a place of safety for children in Motherwell, followed by Dora Nginza and PE provincial hospitals, before moving to Livingstone. 


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