Yesterday after returning from lunch with a potential research participant, who told me the long, traumatic story of her life, I was immediately greeted by one of the people in charge at the Bright Site Project where I have been working steadily both on my research and providing some very basic assistance to refugees. He told me that he wanted me to see some of the problems refugees were facing and took me into a room where there were two women sitting one hunched over and crying in pain and the other one clutching her stomach. When I asked what was wrong they said they had contracted food poisoning from the shelter for refugees where they were saying which was supposedly being supported by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (we later found out that the UNHCR had not been providing funding to the shelter since July due to a lack of funds and that there is no running water or electrictiy at the shelter).
Upon looking at the two women it was fairly obvious (at least to me) that they were dehydrated and needed medical attention. So first I went about trying to make an oral rehydration solution (the ingredients for which, salt, sugar and water, were not readily accessible). During the process of doing so the woman who had been hunched over started screaming in pain and saying she had to go to the bathroom and that she was going to be sick. This was complicated by the fact that she walked with a crutch because her husband shot her in the hip 6 years ago and she was so dehydrated and weak that she could barely stand up. So I swung her arm around my shoulder and supported her and asked one of the several men in the room to do the same on the other side so we could get her to the bathroom before things got really messy. The fellow for some reason seemed unable to do this so with some effort between me, Elanor (the sick lady) and her crutch and with some assistance opening doors we got her to the bathroom in time. When she was finished being sick she continued to cry in pain so I brought her to a room with a lot of floor space, lay her down and covered her with a seat. I then instructed someone to call an ambulance as things were going downhill fast. Unfortunately 2 different people called an ambulance and neither came and so we were left lying on the floor for a half hour while the woman continued to scream in pain.
After the half hour wait, the site manager for Bright Site arrived and offered the two women in addition to me and Jean a lift to the hospital in the back of her backkie (pickup truck) which we accepted. South Africa has a private health care system with a few overburdened and underfunded public hospitals. Because these women were refugees we were brough to the public hospital which was certainly a bit worse for wear. It had dirty floors, small, dimly lit waiting rooms and long line ups. When we arrived at the hospital the women were given numbers right away and I accompanied them into the waiting area while Jean tried to register them so they could be seen by a doctor. Despite the fact there was only one person in line in front of us the registration took over a half an hour, with Elanor screaming in pain all the while. Eventually one of the nurses and a doctor had some compassion for Elanor and brought her into the room where the more worse for wear women were and gave her some pain medication, while the other woman, Bellancine was left to sit outside. I had assumed this would mean Elanor would be seen ahead of other, less sick patients, but apparently the idea of a triage system has not yet made it to South Africa as patients are seen in order of arrival rather than order of severity of illness.
The rest of the afternoon was spent struggling with security guards and nurses to be allowed to check on the women, who didn't speak good english and who were very very ill and waiting. After 4.5 hours in emergency the doctors finally got to the two women. When the doctors first arrived on seen I mentioned to the one that the women were in a very percarious living situation and that if they were released in the middle of the night they might be forced to sleep on the street so if there was any question as to whether they should be released if they could keep them, to which he snidely replied "I don't know how long you have been in South Africa for, but there are a lot of people in precarious living situations here and this is not a hotel" (I later had a more pleasant exchange with this doctor). In any case the verdict was that they both had a severe and invasive bacterial infection in their lower intestines and were severely dehydrated and would be given IV fluids, antibiotics and more tests would be done before the left.
So after this and exhaustive search for somewhere for the ladies to stay the night, which eventually ended up with Jean offering his floor, we left the ladies in the care of the hospital.
We will find out today what the outcome was and if they are feeling better.
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