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Not the time to die.
Topic Started: 27 Feb 2009, 12:34 PM (64 Views)
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I was the Night Superintendent of Morningside Clinic in the swish Northern suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg in 1986 and I was just about to start my round at about 8.0pm when the main entrance door opened electronically and three black guys dragged a prosrate fellow black guy across the threshold and looked wildly round before letting him loose.
`What do you want?` I demanded as I skipped across the foyer.
`This man has been stabbed in the heart boss and so we have brought him to the hospital.` the spokesman said.
`This hospital is not equipped as an A&E Hospital .`I replied and could see at once that I was not making myself understood as he looked at me vacantly. I stooped over the figure on the floor and felt for a radial pulse and there was none - a faint carotid pulse was felt and I flipped back one of his eyelids and the eyes were up in his head and so he was still alive. I rose and called to security to bring over the trolley which stood in the corner of the foyer , that I had never seen used . Now was a time for it to be put to use . It had on it two folded cellular blankets and we laid one over the trolley and picked the guy up and placed him on the trolley with the blood flowing freely from the chest wouind directly over the heart.
I quickly covered him with the other blanket and shouted to my receptionist `Notify ICU.` and she acknowleged with a wave. The security guy and I whipped round the corner and down to ICU and crashed through the door and the two black sisters were waiting and we ran him up to the bed and moved him over ,placing a rubber macintosh under him for the flowing blood which was still pulsing from his chest.
He is going to die I thought . I tried unsuccessfully to get a line in but his veins had collapsed . The black sister who was placing an oxygen mask on him said `Dr W---- is in theatre Mr. Cliff. just finishing off his last orthopaedic case.`
`Get him.` I demanded. I felt for a femoral pulse whilst tyhe other black sister was applying direct pressure to the wound and stemming the blood flow. The femoral pulse was palpable and I placed chest leads on and hooked him up to the monitor which showed sinus tachycardia which was to be expected following the massive blood loss. Suddenly a hand gripped my wrist in a sort of maniacal way and the patient stared up at me and shouted `Am I going to die ?`
`Not today Buddy .` I reassured him `Maybe tomorrow - but not today.` I added.
`What is this Cliff? ` Dr W --- demanded as he burst through the ICU doors in his theatre greens and a rubber apron on.
` Can you do a cut down on this guy Doc?` I asked. ` I can`t get a line in as his veins are collapsed.`
` What`s his medical aid?` he demanded.
`Oh for Christs sake.`I said . `Just get a line in please.and save a life, never mind about payment for once.`
I had the pack ready at the bedside and we soon had a cut down and plasma and electrolytes were running in and the patient opened his eyes and his heart rate on the monitor steadied.
`He needs a heart surgeon .` Dr W---- said. Get Pete Colson or Rob Kingsley to come out . That stab wound is in the heart.`
Thanks Doc.` I said `I`ll do it.`
I went back to my office and rang Mrs . Depkin the manageress in Pretoria and told her the story and she backed me and said that I had done the right thing but that we couldn`t keep him as he had no `medical aid` and to get him off the premises and how much had I spent on him already?
`We will get nothing back from him.` she upbraided me.
` If we have spent R20 on him I`ll be surprised.` I said.
`Well get him transferred to the black hospital PDQ.`she said `And let him die there.`
I rang `De Fries `ambulance and they refused to come out because he was black .
I rang the state ambulance who came and transferred the guy into the black hospital in Joh`burg.
Mrs .Depkin waited back for me the next evening and told me that the guy was well on the road to recovery , the knife had missed his heart and it was `not his time to die.` She gave me a bill for the care that had been provided for the patient and the address of his employer which was in Randburg which was close to where I lived.
I called in and it turned out to be a garage and the white owner listened to my story and said `That will be Abraham. He is a good worker . He is starting back to work tomorrow . give me the bill .I will pay it for him and thanks for what you did.`
I feel that I atoned for my `sin` of 1976 in London.
Cliff/Bunky
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Cajunbug
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As I see it you had no need for atonement but it still was a job well done.
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Hoggy
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Yes, well done Cliff but I am really amazed that costs and racism should ever be allowed to intervene at such a critical time. What, I wonder, would be the feelings of Mrs Depkin if the roles had been reversed and she was dragged into a black hospital in a similar situation? I guess she would have been pretty peeved if her life had been put at risk through such delays.
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