Man dies within 24 hours of setting himself alight
The delivery team went out on the streets and gave people empty pizza boxes, those who were lucky found voucher prizes inside and we gave them a free meal.
LYDENBURG – The 33-year-old man who set himself alight last Wednesday died within 24 hours of the burns he had sustained in his suicide attempt.
According to Const Elizabeth Mogoa, communications officer at Lydenburg SAPS, Mr Thabo Mkhondo apparently poured petrol over himself while sitting in his bakkie following a row with his wife.
Mogoa also told the newspaper that Mkhondo allegedly phoned his father earlier and told him of his intention to end his life.
Mr Louis van Rhyn, who was doing maintenance work at the airfield at the time of the incident, heard people screaming and saw Mkhondo next to the flaming bakkie. He pushed the vehicle out of the way with his son’s bakkie and extinguished the flames with water.
He immediately called for an ambulance and also phoned Mkhondo’s father and obtained his medical-aid details. In an attempt to keep him conscious, Van Rhyn kept on talking to him until the ambulance arrived. Hazmat operator, Mr Deon Broekman was the first paramedic on the scene and immediately called for an airlift.
Mkhondo was treated and stabilised on the scene by Netcare 911 paramedics until the EMS helicopter arrived. Mr André Denneysen of Netcare 911 treated the wounds with burn shields and incubated Mkhondo.
“We stabilised him and he was airlifted to Nelspruit Mediclinic. The patient suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns.
I would estimate that he sustained burn wounds to more than 90 per cent of his body,” said Denneysen.
Ms Robyn Baard, spokesman for Mediclinic Nelspruit, said Mkhondo was treated at the hospital’s emergency centre, stabilised and transferred to Milpark Hospital in Parktown, Johannesburg, which has a burn unit.
On Tuesday Magoa phoned the newspaper and confirmed that Mkhondo had died in the hospital within 24 hours of his horrific suicide attempt.
