{"id":40283,"date":"2022-11-15T18:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation"},"modified":"2022-11-15T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T19:27:39","slug":"woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","title":{"rendered":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six weeks to be transferred to a hospital which is capable of performing the necessary surgery.<\/p>\n

Makemiso Ramabitle was on her way home from a traditional ceremony in the village of Dititjerent, when she took a wrong turn. She found herself lost in steep mountain terrain.<\/p>\n

“It was at night and there was fog. I only remember rolling from the mountain, hitting stones,” she said.<\/p>\n

She fell down a rock face and ended up wedged in a crevice.<\/p>\n

“Each time, when I tried to stand, I would fall … I could not move my lower body. I slept there, helpless, thirsty and hungry,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I thought I was going to die. I kept on praying to God to send at least one person in my direction. I was in so much pain.”<\/p>\n

She was there from Monday night, 17 October, until Thursday, the 20th.<\/p>\n

She was found by a shepherd, who was searching for cows. He called for help and men from her village of Mohosi, six kilometres away, came and rescued her.<\/p>\n

“I’m lucky to be alive,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ntambo Msuthwana, one of the men who found her, said: “When we found her, she was in so much pain. She just asked for water.”<\/p>\n

Yet her ordeal was not over.<\/p>\n

Msuthwana took her to Taylor Bequest Hospital in Matatiele, 67km away.<\/p>\n

But the hospital has no orthopaedic surgeons for complicated fractures. X-rays showed her hip bone was cracked and she had a broken knee bone.<\/p>\n

Ramabitle was discharged the same day.<\/p>\n

She was told she would be transferred to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha for surgery, but this could only take place on 28 November, nearly six weeks later.<\/p>\n

The receptionist said they had to wait for beds to be available in Mthatha, which served several hospitals.<\/p>\n

Ramabitle can hardly walk. She needs help to go to the toilet. She is in constant pain. She was given 10 paracetamol tablets by the hospital.<\/p>\n

Ramabitle said:<\/p>\n

She shares a one-room mud house with her husband, Tsietsi. He is a shepherd and earns R1 500 a month. They owe the man who took her to hospital R1 000.<\/p>\n

“At least, he had mercy. He didn’t charge for a return trip, even though he waited for me,” she said.<\/p>\n

There is a bakkie that serves as public transport to the hospital, leaving at 06:00 and returning at 16:00. Outside of these times, villagers have to hire private vehicles at R1 800 a return trip.<\/p>\n

As the ambulance will leave Taylor Bequest for Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital at 02:00, Ramabitle will have to wait at the hospital all day.<\/p>\n

Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda confirmed that Taylor Bequest in Matatiele did not have orthopaedic surgeon care.<\/p>\n

Dekeda did not clarify why there was such a long delay before the operation could be performed.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six weeks to be transferred to a hospital which is capable of performing the necessary surgery. Makemiso Ramabitle was on her way home from a traditional ceremony in the village […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[274,315,311,3933,574,227,275],"class_list":["post-40283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-eastern-cape","tag-eastern-cape-department-of-health","tag-gqeberha","tag-health","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nWoman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\"},\"wordCount\":512,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"eastern cape\",\"eastern cape department of health\",\"gqeberha\",\"Health\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\",\"name\":\"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation - South Africa","description":"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation","og_description":"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation","datePublished":"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation"},"wordCount":512,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","eastern cape","eastern cape department of health","gqeberha","Health","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation","name":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-15T18:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-15T19:27:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"A 51-year-old woman in the rural Eastern Cape, who is in severe pain after a fall, has been told to wait nearly six week ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1668522620.61.jpg","width":750,"height":562,"caption":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/woman-who-survived-mountain-fall-must-wait-six-weeks-for-operation#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Woman who survived mountain fall must wait six weeks for operation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}