A milestone sweetened by the fact that it was a medical colleague. Well done to the whole critical care team at Groote Schuur Hospital.
Western Cape, South Africa (02 March 2021) – Groote Schuur Hospital celebrated the discharge of their 150th ventilated survivor yesterday!
It’s been 341 days since the lockdown started in South Africa. During this time, many of our hospitals have been inundated with COVID cases, sometimes overwhelming the facilities and stretching our exhausted frontline workers even further.
And many South Africans have been put on ventilators over this period to try to save their lives!
“Mechanical ventilators have become a symbol of the COVID-19 pandemic, representing the last best hope to survive for people who can no longer draw a life-sustaining breath but the ventilator also marks a crisis point in a patient’s COVID-19 course, as many who go on a ventilator die,” Dennis Thompson from the HealthDay reported describes.
To hear that a hospital in South Africa has saved and discharged 150 patients who no longer need to be on ventilators is news we should all be celebrating!
“A milestone sweetened by the fact that it is a medical colleague. Well done to the whole critical care team at Groote Schuur,” Ivan Joubert, the Director of Critical Care at Groot Schuur, explained.
Groote Schuur is one of Cape Town’s premier tertiary academic hospitals and was officially opened in 1938; and for over 80 years, the hospital has provided world-class healthcare to everyone and has achieved distinction as the academic hospital for service, education and research in partnership with the University of Cape Town Medical School and Faculty of Health Sciences.
The hospital – with a staff of over 500 doctors, 1300 nurses and 1600 allied workers – has been at the heart of the COVID-19 fight and we thank all the frontline workers who have put our lives on the line to keep us safe during the pandemic.
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