We did not sign up for a pandemic when we got into med school and nursing college, but dear god did we step up to the plate.
Johannesburg, South Africa (29 December 2020) – Dr Keith Murray Cousins – a healthcare worker at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in the emergency department – shared a heartfelt plea with South Africa… “help us save ourselves”!
With the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and the increase in trauma cases, South Africa’s hospitals are almost full to capacity, and our healthcare workers are dealing with this head-on on the frontline.
“Our hospitals, both private and public, are already close to full capacity in a number of provinces, and ICU beds are either full already or rapidly filling up,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The President was addressing the nation on Monday, on developments in relation to the country’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic; South Africa has breached the one million mark of confirmed COVID-19 cases after 9 502 cases were reported on Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 1 004 413 cases.
“According to the data we have, with every relaxation of the restrictions on the sale of alcohol, the number of trauma cases reporting at our hospitals has increased. These trauma cases are putting an unnecessary strain on our already stretched public health facilities,” the President said.
But it is our nurses, doctors and all frontline workers that are suffering the most while working the longest hours, under immense pressure. Dr Cousins summed it up perfectly in his plea: We did not sign up for a pandemic when we got into med school and nursing college, but dear god did we step up to the plate.
Read his heartfelt appeal below:
“My friends and colleagues are getting sick. Doctors are dying. Young doctors who are under 30. Who I studied with. We are getting sick from the patients we are trying to serve. And save.
As a friend and colleague of mine said to me this week: we did not sign up for a pandemic when we got into med school and nursing college. But dear god, did we step up to the plate.
We held the hands of the relatives you couldn’t when they were dying alone. We intubated PUI’s (persons under investigation) whose COVID status was unknown, putting ourselves at risk of infection.
We are tired now. We are getting sick. We are dying.
Trust me; we also want to go on holiday to the coast and live our best lives at Christmas and New Year gatherings. We can’t. We don’t. Because we are infection risks to everyone we love.
Please, friends and family: this thing won’t go away at the stroke of midnight on January the 1st, 2021.
Help us help you. Help us save ourselves.
From a very shaken healthcare professional.”
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