Staff at the Animal Welfare Society (AWS) of South Africa in Philippi used their veterinary skills to save the life of a man who was “bleeding to death” on the side of the road.
AWS inspector Mark Levendal was on his way home from work and was driving on Papkuilsvlei Road, Philippi just after 5pm on Wednesday when he was alerted by his colleague, Jaque le Roux, to call an ambulance after they found a man bleeding on the side of the road.
Levendal says it is not clear how the man became injured; he had a deep cut and swelling on his head and was convulsing uncontrollably.
Levendal was joined by colleagues Calvin Samuels, Fiona Barnard and Jaque’s father, Charles le Roux at the scene.
He says they waited for over an hour for an ambulance to arrive and that is when his team jumped into action to stabilise the man as he was losing a lot of blood and suffering multiple seizures.
“I had already called the City’s emergency services and provided them with detailed information relating to the incident, after which I was provided with a reference number via SMS,” he explains.
“Sadly, an hour and 15 minutes had gone by and there was still no ambulance, by which time the patient had suffered a few more seizures.
“Our team stabilised the patient and safely loaded him into my Emergency Response vehicle, whereupon I speedily proceeded to the Heideveld Day Hospital where we handed him over to the medical staff to further care for him.”
Vet Mark Levendal Mark was on his way home from work when he was alerted to call an ambulance after a man was bleeding on the side of the road.
Mark van der Heever, the Deputy Director for Communications for the Western Cape Department of Health, says an ambulance was dispatched to the scene but had to attend other scenes first.
“At the time we received the call (5.04pm), all our available ambulances were attending to other priority calls as well.
“Immediately after one became available, it was dispatched, but on arrival at the scene, the crew was informed the person was transported privately.
“We acknowledge our emergency medical services are stretched due to the high burden of disease on trauma/violence related calls it has to respond to on a daily basis.”
genevieve.serra@inl.co.za