A nurse who was on duty at Jubilee District Hospital last Friday when patients suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting and cramps flooded the hospital, said they were overwhelmed and stretched.
It was later established that the patients had cholera.
The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorised to speak to the media, said they were left feeling helpless as patients started streaming in on Friday.
She said her colleagues who were on duty earlier in the week said they started seeing patients with diarrhoea from five days earlier, but they had been managing the cases.
By Friday, however, she said “it felt like a tsunami had hit the hospital”.
“There was a long queue of ambulances that brought in patients. Some were referred directly from clinics while others were coming in from their homes,” said the nurse.
“It was chaos. At some point, we didn't know who to help and who not to help as all the patients that came in needed urgent medical attention. Most of them were dehydrated and we knew that they were at a stage where every second counts,” she said.
The nurse said their main focus was to administer drips to patients to try to rehydrate them. Many, she said, were already weak.
“Some patients waited for more than four hours before we could attend to them. It was bad, but there was nothing we could do. We did our best to work faster, but it was only a few of us in the casualty ward,” she said.
The nurse said due to the high number of patients being seen, they had to devise alternative means.
On Sunday, with the help of volunteers, they managed to convert another ward into an emergency unit, so they could accommodate more patients at a time.
It's like we didn't do anything. We are still seeing a high number of patients coming in and we can't immediately attend to them. Our waiting time is close to six hours now
— Nurse at Jubilee District Hospital
On Thursday, she said the situation remained dire. The nurse said they continued to battle with space.
“It's like we didn't do anything. We are still seeing a high number of patients coming in and we can't immediately attend to them. Our waiting time is close to six hours now.
“There's another challenge now of admissions. We don't have beds to admit patients and we refer them to other hospitals for admissions,” she said.
As of Thursday afternoon, 20 patients were confirmed dead from the disease in Gauteng.
The number of infections, however, continued to increase.
Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said on Thursday the Jubilee District Hospital had treated 179 patients by Wednesday afternoon, up from the 165 a day earlier. This includes 18 patients who have been transferred to Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Tshwane.
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