Covid-19 related double tragedy leaves north family mourning
Last week the hospital confirmed 15 staffers contracted Covid-19, most of which were nurses.
The families of a Soshanguve couple are struggling to come to terms with their deaths, less than a week apart, earlier this month.
“It’s hard for everyone,” one of the deceased’s older brothers Dan Huma told Rekord.
His sister-in-law Maggy and younger brother Tsitsi Huma died from Covid-19 in separate hospitals on 4 and 9 June respectively.
“She passed away on Thursday afternoon and we had to arrange for the burial to take place the following day,” he said.
Maggy had worked as a nurse at the Doctor George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa for several years.
“She was admitted at the Mediclinic Legae until she passed away,” he said, adding that she had gone to a private doctor just days earlier complaining about flu.
“The doctor told her to go to hospital if she did not start feeling well,” he said.
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Dan said just hours before he received the news of her passing, he was informed his brother had also tested positive for the virus.
“Tsitsi was taken to hospital by ambulance after he also started not feeling well,” he said.
Huma said both Maggy and Tsitsi were laid to rest the day after they passed away in line with government regulations pertaining to people who died from Covid-19.
The despondent sibling said the family and the couple’s three children (aged 28, 15 and 10) were still struggling to come to terms with their sudden deaths.
“We’re placing our faith in God and hoping that time will heal our wounds,” Dan said.
Doctor George Mukhari Academic Hospital spokesperson Zwide Ndandwe said the hospital community was deeply saddened by of Maggy’s death.
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He said staff members who were in close contact with her and other staffers who contracted the virus, were in self-isolation.
“None of them can be deemed as recovered as the necessary period of treatment has not elapsed.”
Ndandwe said the hospital was strengthening health and safety measures to ensure frontline workers’ health was protected.
“All the hospital workstations are being disinfected right now and the areas with reported positive cases were quarantined and disinfected. Some have been shut down whilst undergoing the fogging process,” he said.
“All workers are being provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and those working in risk areas are tested regularly.”
He added that employees were required to observe preventative measures such as social distancing, wearing masks at all times, washing and sanitizing hands at regular intervals, limiting unnecessary movements between workstations and also denying entry to any building to those not wearing a mask.
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Last week the hospital confirmed 15 staffers contracted Covid-19, most of which were nurses.
To bridge the gap, Ndadwe said the hospital increased staff by employing extra staff on a one-year contract to cater for Covid-19 challenges.
The Gauteng Department of Health also expressed its condolences to the family and all other families who lost their loved ones to Covid-19 .
Department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said, as a standard protocol, the hospital management has been engaging and updating employees on the latest developments pertaining to Covid-19 outbreak.
“The hospital’s communication unit produces a weekly newsletter to inform staff of the current Covid-19 situation and interventions. The department’s central office also issues internal communication material to all staff weekly to ensure health workers are kept abreast of developments.”
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