The death toll in the George building collapse in the Western Cape has risen to 14. This after three more bodies were pulled out of the rubble, leaving 41 people still unaccounted for.
The latest update was given at a media briefing hosted by Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, at the joint operations center at the Garden Route District Municipality.
District and provincial disaster officials were briefing the media on the operations so far.
Dr Wayne Smith, who heads up the provincial health departments disaster medicine unit, also gave an update on the patients.
“A large number has already been discharged with minor injuries. But then there are patients that have been trapped for a large period of time and with that, we end up with all the complications of crush syndrome, where muscles have been squashed for long periods of time and kind of affecting various organs in the body. So, that’s what we dealing with now,” says Smith.
National Health Minister, Joe Paahla has heaped praise on both the George Provincial Hospital and the George Mediclinic for working together to help save the lives of the patients brought in from Monday’s deadly building collapse.
Paahla, accompanied by Western Cape Minister for Health, Nomafrench Mbombo, visited patients at both hospitals on Friday.
Calling the incident a national disaster, he says it was heartwarming that the private facility opened its doors to receive the patients that needed specialized treatment, without any questions.
“The hospital rose to the occasion when they were contacted by George Hospital to say we need help because we are overwhelmed. And from the report we got, they really did everything, stopped operations, and we thank the management, also all the staff. It’s quite heartwarming to know that even private doctors who were already busy with operations or were just about to start, agreed to postpone those operations,” says Mbombo.
Video: George Building Collapse – Community members hopeful victims will be found alive:
