KwaZulu-Natal education department spokesperson, Muzi Mahlambi shared his 23-days covid-19 experience in the hospital.
He commended the doctors and nursed for their amazing support.
However, he narrated that he witnessed six patients die but he learnt to adjust to the “new normal” and fought Covid-19.
“In the 18 days that I was in ICU six people died. It was so traumatic because you know when doctors and nurses rally around one bed and run around with a lot of machines that there is serious trouble.”
He said a team wearing white comes with a white mobile coffin to pick up the body.
“The next thing a new patient comes and occupies that bed. The small terrified person in you wants to tell him or her to say people died in that bed and you are quickly reminded that you also know no history about yours,” he said.
Mahlambi was admitted to hospital on July 17.
While in hospital, he said he was described as Mr Mahlambi Covid-19 positive and he hears that more than 40 times a day.
His lungs were severely affected and led to painful chest and severe cough.
“Everyone in the ICU was coughing in different tunes but the sound of the coughing was a norm. It was painful, such that when it was not you coughing, you would not only hear the sound of another person coughing but you would feel his or her pain as if it’s you coughing.”
Mahlambi said he was “wrapped” in plastic when he was transferred from the ICU to the high-care unit.
He also narrated his ordeal with a nurse.
“One day I borrowed a pen from a nurse. When I had finished using it I wanted to take it back to her but she said wait let me put on the gloves. After putting on the gloves she took it and sanitised it and put it on the table, not in the drawer where she had taken it. I think she threw it away.”
He said Covid-19 brought a new normal for him but prayers kept him going.
“Whenever I posted something on Facebook regarding my condition, I would get minimum of 700 comments per post and each and every comment would touch on God. The prayers kept me going.”
Mahlambi was discharged on Sunday.
