KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, has heaped praised on the medical team that performed a complicated operation on a man who was impaled by a pole as a result of a car accident over the weekend.
The accident happened in Durban’s UMngeni Road on Saturday, 7 March 2015 and involved 4 people. A vehicle left the road and crashed into a pole, and a 30 year-old man was trapped and critically injured in the vehicle while the three other occupants only sustained minor injuries.
The Paramedics who arrived at the scene decided to summon the Department of Health’s Air Ambulance after realizing that a metal part of the car had penetrated - and was lodged in - the man’s abdomen.
The helicopter arrived and landed on the road which had to be closed for traffic. A team of rescuers from KwaZulu Natal Emergency Medical Services; several Private Ambulances Services as well as Fire Fighters from the eThekwini Metro then realised that extraction without endangering the man’s life was not possible.
The helicopter again had to take off to fetch a trauma surgeon from Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, who was asked to help with this complicated extrication.
The trauma surgeon, Dr Mike Faurie, successfully performed an emergency surgery on the man’s abdomen which made it possible for the rescuers to continue extricating the man from the badly crushed car. The surgeon then flew with the flight crews airlifting the patient to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, where a fully prepared trauma team was waiting to receive them.
Dr Dhlomo said: “This could not have been possible if it were not for the team effort of our health practitioners as well as the high level of competence by our surgeon from Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital. Thanks to them; the man is alive and recuperating well from the hospital.”
For more details, please contact:
Mr Desmond Motha
Cell: 083 295 3901
