The Department of Health has received thankful messages from a number of flight passengers who travelled on a flight from Durban and Cape Town on Monday morning following the heroic intervention by the Deputy Minister, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo to save the life of a fellow passenger who experienced health complications on board.
The Deputy Minister Dhlomo was alerted by one passenger about the situation in which another passenger was in need of emergency medical assistance from anyone with medical background to assist a female passenger because she was not well, and he managed to attend and stabilise her for the remainder of the trip, which was almost cut short when the pilots were considering flight diversion for an early landing to save her life.
“I was alerted by a passenger seated behind me in the plane that the cabin crew were asking for medical assistance to assist a passengers who was not well, and I had to quickly move from my seat to the seat next to the passenger and attended her. As a trained medical doctor, firstly I had to check the vital signs in order to detect any medical problems, and thanks to fellow passengers and the flight attendants who provided the medical kit and oxygen to enable me to stabilise the patient throughout the journey”, said Deputy Minister Dhlomo.
When the pilots were talking of possibility of diverting the flight, Dr Dhlomo responded that he would be able to manage the situation until the scheduled destination where he finally handed over the patient to the paramedic team who have been waiting for the flight to land at Cape Town International Airport.
This is in the nature of Deputy Minister to contribute towards accelerating healthcare service delivery by regularly visiting health facilities and forensic pathology services around the country to lend his hand through performing post-mortems to enable the families to bury their loved ones on time.
Media enquiries:
Foster Mohale
Cell: 072 432 3792
E-mail: Foster.mohale@health.gov.za
Doctor Tshwale
Cell: 063 657 8487
E-mail: Doctor.Tshwale@health.gov.za
