GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES COME UNDER FIRE AS LACK OF URGENCY WORSENS – MAN DIES

Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal

A Newcastle woman has been left devastated after her husband of 18 years suffered a heart attack and died.

The story that unfolds up to the tragic event is nothing new to the community, as many have come forward voicing concerns over the fact that emergency telephone numbers are almost always left unanswered or are seemingly out of order, coupled with the alleged lack of urgency at public health facilities.

Speaking exclusively to SpotlightOnNewcastle an emotional Millicent Van Zyl said she had no idea that what began as an ordinary Wednesday would result in her becoming a widow.

On 12 March 2025 Millicent,46, recounted that while the couple were at home, her husband, Raymond Van Zyl,47 had come to her saying that he was not feeling well. He said that he had just eaten and thought that he could be suffering from severe heartburn and indigestion. Raymond complained of chest and upper back pain. He then left the couples bedroom and made his way to the lounge, where Millicent , a few short moments later , found him collapsed on the floor.

Knowing that her husband already suffered from a pre-existing heart condition, Millicent went into panic mode and made the decision to contact Emergency Services and request an ambulance for her husband to be taken to the Madadeni hospital. After dialing the emergency number a few times without any answer, Millicent then resorted to ask for assistance on an emergency WhatsApp group.

“At exactly 2 minutes after 6pm on Wednesday evening I requested assistance on one of our many local emergency WhatsApp groups saying that my husband had collapsed, he has a chronic heart condition and that a state ambulance was urgently needed. I do know that the group is always very prompt in providing help. I was given more emergency numbers which I desperately dialed and every single one of them were left unanswered,” she said.

She further explained that during this time, her husband had regained consciousness but remained suffering from chest and back discomfort. Many others came to her aid telephonically in trying to assist with a state ambulance to be dispatched, but to no avail.

“I also asked for help on another community WhatsAspp group hoping that someone could help me in getting a ambulance. After almost two hours of trying to get hold of an ambulance, our neighbor was alerted of the situation and offered to take my husband to the Madadeni Hospital. I could not accompany him because I cannot drive and also because of my many medical conditions, one of which is epilepsy. We said goodbye and I had no idea that would be the last time I saw my husband alive. I asked him to keep in contact and let me know what was happening,” she said.

As the hours went by and no communication had been given to her yet, Millicent was under the impression that her husband had been admitted to the Madadeni Hospital and that she would hear from him shortly after leaving him numerous messages.

“The next morning at 3am I received a message from Raymond saying that the doctor had informed him that he had suffered a heart attack and that he needed to be admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but that there were no beds currently available and that he was being transferred to the Ladysmith Hospital. That was the last message that I received from him. Later that morning I received a call from the Madadeni Hospital asking me if the Ladysmith Hospital had contacted me, I said no they had not and desperately needed to know if my husband was fine. I was told that the Ladysmith hospital would contact me,” she explained.

It was at approximately 11am on 13 March that Millicent received the news from the Ladysmith Hospital that her husband had unfortunately suffered a second heart attack which resulted in his death. Despite their best efforts Raymond could not be resuscitated.

“This begs the question of what happened between the time that my husband reached the Madadeni Hospital up until 3am the next morning? If a patient has had a heart attack and has a pre-existing heart condition, why did it take so long for doctors or nurses to get him the treatment that was needed or to transport him to Ladysmith faster? I strongly believe that if an ambulance had come to my husbands aid and taken him to hospital, he would still be alive today,” said Millicent unable to hold back her tears.

SpotlightOnNewcastle reached out to Public Relations Officer at the Madadeni Provincial Hospital,Nhlaka Mahlungu who advised that the matter had been escalated and that it was under investigation. A full report would be given, unfortunately, at time of going to press, no report was available.

We also reached out to the Director of the Government ambulance services, calls and emails were left with unattended. We took it a step further by attempting to call five of of the Government Ambulance Emergency numbers which are easily assessable to the public, all of which either did not ring or were left unanswered.

SpotlightOnNewcastle will be doing a follow up on this story in the coming days so stay tuned! If you have had a similar experience please reach out to us via email/WhatsApp. Details can be found on our website. We would love to hear from you!

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