Patient dies after setting herself on fire at Durban hospital: health department

The KwaZulu-Natal health department says a 41-year-old woman died after allegedly setting herself on fire at Clairwood Hospital on Thursday. 

The department said the isolation ward of the hospital's internal medicine unit, where the patient started the fire in the early hours, was destroyed.

At least 23 patients were evacuated from an adjacent ward, which also caught alight.

A health department spokesperson said they were transferred to other available beds in the hospital. The eThekwini fire department extinguished the fire and no other injuries were reported.

The department said it was investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, its emergency medical services (EMS) vehicles were involved in two crashes involving stray cows on Thursday, in which one patient died.

“In the first incident, a bus from our Nakekela hub from Manguzi overturned near Mbazwana in uMkhanyakude district while transporting 60 patients and two crew members. The bus had come across a stray cow which it hit before losing control.

“One patient trapped in the wrecked bus died while the rest of the passengers and two crew members sustained minor injuries and were transported to eMseleni Hospital.”

In the second incident, an EMS vehicle transporting two injured minors from Itshelejuba Hospital to Ngwelezane Hospital overturned when it hit a stray cow. There were no injuries. 

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