WAITING IN PAIN

A BONTEHEUWEL meisie’s hospital visit turned into a nightmare when her treatment was delayed because a gang shootout suspect was rushed into the same emergency room.

The seven-year-old’s father Deon Jansen told the Daily Voice that his daughter and her cousins were playing outside in front of their stoop when his daughter cut her hand and he took her to Vanguard Community Health Centre for treatment.

However, her medical care was delayed when an alleged skollie was rushed in with a gunshot wound.

Ward councillor Angus McKenzie said that he was die hel in when he heard that the minor, who had been sitting and waiting for hours at the local hospital, had to wait for medical attention because gangsters decided that now is a good time to shoot at each other.

McKenzie said: “While she is in pain, frightened, and needing urgent care, the Hard Livings and the Playboys decide that right now is the perfect time to shoot at each other again. One of these gangsters gets himself shot.

“And just like that, his friends rush him to the same hospital – the same emergency room where this innocent child has been waiting for help.”

He added that this is not the hospital’s fault, as they are bound by the medical triage system, which is a method for sorting and prioritising patients based on the urgency of their needs to ensure those with the most critical conditions receive care first.

McKenzie said that communities should not continue to live in fear because gangsters choose violence and hospitals should not be turned into battlegrounds where skollies disrupt services meant for the vulnerable.

The concerned father said of the girl added: “When she saw the doctor after the X-rays, we were told that they were waiting on the files of the people who got shot earlier.

"The doctor then did stitches on my daughter’s hand and after that we went outside to wait for her medication.”

He added: “I felt so unsafe, because after the police left they said to the hospital security that the security needs to be tightened at the gate because the [other] gang wanted to come into the hospital and finish the guy off.”