Pretoria - The Department of Health in Gauteng has admitted that an ambulance arrived two hours late in relation to the death of 6-year-old Oreratile Chabalala.
The Pretoria News yesterday reported that Oreratile, a Grade 1 learner at Ontlametse Phalatse Primary School in Hebron, Pretoria, died on Saturday after he had been admitted to Odi District Hospital while struggling to breathe.
Before the tragic death, the boy was transferred to Dr George Mukhari Hospital for specialised care. However, there was no bed available for him.
But, eventually, when a bed became available, the ambulance meant to transport him to the facility arrived too late as he had succumbed to his illness, according to Oreratile’s uncle, Phetolo Nakana.
In a statement, the department's spokesperson, Motalatale Modiba, dismissed allegations that there were no ambulances, but conceded that the ambulance did arrive two hours late.
He conceded that Oreratile had been admitted to Odi District Hospital presenting with difficulty in breathing and chest pains, and on his fifth day in admission his condition worsened, prompting clinicians to make a call that the child be transferred to a higher level of care at Dr George Mukhari Hospital.
He said Oreratile was put on ventilator support while awaiting transfer to another institution since Odi did not have an Intensive Care Unit.
“A paediatrics ICU bed was made available the following day (October 7) at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital around 2.53pm, and an ambulance request to move the patient from Odi to Dr George Mukhari was registered at 3.18pm while the child remained on ventilator support.
“A normal ambulance was available to transport the patient to Dr Mukhari at around 4pm.
“However, due to the critical condition the patient was in, an ICU ambulance with high care equipment on board had to be dispatched.
“An ICU ambulance that was dropping off another critical patient at Mamelodi Hospital was immediately diverted to Odi at 16h48 and arrived at the district hospital at around 5.15pm.
“Due to the unstable condition of the patient ... while the hospital and Gauteng Emergency Medical Services paramedics were busy with a handover, the child went into cardiac arrest. Resuscitation was initiated on the patient, but unfortunately they could not make it,” Modiba said.
He said it was far from the truth that the department had no available ambulance to transport the patient to Dr Mukhari.
“Odi has five intermediate ambulances daily that are sufficient to service emergency calls. The base receives, on average, 21 emergency calls per shift, which the ambulance ratio is sufficient to respond to on time.
“A death of any of our patients, irrespective of circumstances or their health condition, is something that is always painful given that the primary focus of health-care workers is to save lives,” he said.
Meanwhile, in another statement, Modiba said there was an increase in the demand for emergency medical services in the province owing to a growing population and high volume of calls.
He said the Emergency Medical Services had managed to maintain 88% response time for calls of under 60 minutes.
Pretoria News