I guess South Aftica has seen an overwhelmed health system before. People have lay on the floor in corridors of hospitals when sick and needing care. Black and poor people are used to lying on the cement floors while receiving care.
I started my clinical years at GF Jooste, in what(according to me) was the height of AIDS related deaths admissions in South Africa.

A patient, completely emaciated, no sight of body fat with severe oral thrush, weak and can no longer stand would use the floor as their bed.
Their only hope for a bed would more likely be a death of another. The dying lay on their stretchers because they were too far gone and did not qualify for the ward bed.

I recall a registrar who has admitted a young mother,Stage 4 AIDS- chastised in Ward round for wasting a bed.
We ‘prayed’ that woman back to life- the registrar was a nice reg and we wanted her to be vindicated.

One lecturer Prof Burch did the rounds and told us about the resilience of a woman with a newborn. She made it and we were elated.
But still many lay on the concrete floor waiting and probably hoping for a death soon. And those gasping for their last breath on the stretchers met their undignified deaths without even a family member holding their hand.

Yes-lonely deaths are regular in the public hospitals.
Then MDR and XDR entered- we started seeing the realities of a workforce including medical students being infected.

One such medical student was my classmate- Mpume. After 6 years she would leave medical school in a coffin.
We have seen an overwhelmed public health system. Nothing will be new here- so move along.

Rationing beds is the norm. ICU beds are a scarce commodity. Many die in general wards with no intervention because the ICU bed is not available.
The relatives always defeated and accepting, cry and have to move on.

The burden of life not saved, is carried by the healthcare workers who are at the coalface. The screams of mothers crying for their children- still haunt me today.
And those first years at medical school seeing people die mli ke that made me question everything!!! Every. Single. Damn. Thing.

It was in those years that I swore I would always be in public sector. But I would get to a point where I say- I have seen enough- I need a break.
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