Staff watch in horror as wounded patient is ‘finished off’

Hospital staff and patients came under attack in two separate incidents in the Eastern Cape at the weekend, with one patient stabbed to death in Ngcobo while doctors were still trying to save his life.  

In Uitenhage, a Tyeks Security guard was hailed a hero for his vigilance after he managed to foil a shooting at the town’s Provincial Hospital on Friday morning.

The security guard, according to provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo, managed to wrestle a gun from a man who had stolen it from a police officer at the state facility.

The man is suspected to be mentally ill, Kupelo said.

At All Saints Hospital in Ngcobo, a suspect barged into the casualty ward and stabbed a patient to death in the early hours of Sunday morning while doctors were still attending to him.

“While they were treating the patient for a stab wound in the chest, a knife-wielding man barged in and said he wanted to finish the patient off,” Kupelo said.

“There were 10 guards deployed to various points of the hospital, but the man forced his way through the security in casualty by waving a knife around.

“The doctor and nurses ran for their lives and the security guards could not prevent the man from stabbing the patient to death.

“The police were called but the man with the knife had already run away by the time they arrived.”

The suspect is known to the police and an arrest is imminent, he said.

Kupelo said the hospital staff who witnessed the stabbing incident would receive trauma counselling.