South Africa: The Toll of Gun Violence - What I See At the Coalface

opinion

By Sithombo Maqungo

The grandmother who died from a gunshot wound that she did not sustain. The medics who quit working in a war zone that they never signed up for. The ripple effect and loss of gun violence.

A grandmother arrives in hospital with a fractured hip. She is scheduled for urgent hip surgery - a procedure that should restore her mobility and independence.

As she is being prepped for theatre, a gunshot victim is rushed in, bleeding out. The grandmother's surgery is cancelled. She can wait; her condition is not immediately life-threatening. The theatre switches to emergency mode. The team fights to save the gunshot victim's life. But his injuries are too severe. He dies.

Meanwhile, grandmother, her surgery cancelled, is returned to the ward.

It's Friday. The weekend unfolds as it always does: theatre after theatre filled with trauma cases. By Monday, the grandmother's condition has deteriorated. Blood clots. Pressure sores. Pneumonia. She dies - not from her fracture, but from the cascading consequences of a gunshot wound she never sustained.

This is the hidden pattern of gun violence in South Africa. One shooting doesn't claim one life. It claims two, three, sometimes more. It consumes units of blood that could have saved other patients. It monopolises theatre time, ICU beds, orthopaedic implants, radiology resources, blood tests to monitor infections. It drains transport budgets as gunshot victims are ferried from one hospital to another. It exhausts...

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