Nurses, staff battle to handle cholera cases

“I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said a nurse who was deployed to the Jubilee District Hospital since the outbreak of cholera in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria. 

When Sowetan visited the facility on Tuesday, an overcrowded casualty ward, commonly known as ward 17, more than 45 patients sat on benches waiting to get help. 

On the other side of the same room, a staffer cleaned what looked like vomit from the floor, as a nurse right across the room called out the name of the next patient to be helped. 

The nurse who had been practising for more than 11 years described the outbreak as the worst he had ever seen.

Speaking to Sowetan on the condition of anonymity, he said there were volunteers and additional nurses from different hospitals to assist, but the casualty ward remained under immense pressure.

"While nurses are trying to insert drips, ambulances drop off more [people] with symptoms,” he said. 

“More people keep coming in and this presents a problem for the casualty ward because the hospital's admin office is far from ward 17. Rightfully a file should be opened before or as medical attention is given to the patients, but now because of the urgency, people skip the admin office to bring the patient, so nurses end up inserting drips before opening files just to save lives. A file is then opened at a later stage.” 

The nurse told Sowetan that children exhibiting symptoms would come in crying, while adults did not even have the energy to cry, but showed signs of pain. 

“They would hold their stomachs and complain of cramps. Even as they vomit, you can see that it is painful for them. When I came in on Sunday, I prepared myself [for] anything. I knew it was an outbreak and the situation is bad, but experiencing it is very different. You can’t help but feel sorry for the people.” 

Outside ward 17, family members queued with food and blankets for their loved ones as they waited to be given turns to enter. 

To avoid further crowding, security allowed three to four people at a time to enter and were given about 5-10 minutes to be inside. 

By Tuesday, Jubilee has seen up to 165 cholera patients while 18 were transferred to other health facilities in Tshwane.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the death toll rose from 15 to 17.

sibiyan@sowetan.co.za