Matsha Survivors make steady recovery
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday November 18, 2015 18:00
At least 109 students were admitted into various facilities after the accident, which took place about a kilometre west of Dutlwe village on Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, Princess Marina Hospital’s (PMH) chief communications and public relations officer, Donnell Kutlapye, told Mmegi that two students in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were very stable. One student was discharged from the ICU to the wards yesterday.
Some 31 students were admitted to PMH after the accident, with various injuries including cranial, bruises, lacerations and fractures.
“Another student was taken to theatre for surgery early this morning with abdominal injury and is now stable. One student has been medically discharged, however she is getting continuous counselling from social workers,” he said.
Kutlapye added that one student was referred from Scottish Livingstone Hospital with a neck injury and a CAT scan was done this morning. The student will undergo an MRI scan today. “The rest of the students are much improved,” he said.
Survivors at Gaborone Private Hospital, which took in six students, were also in good condition with one of them discharged yesterday.
Hospital manager, Mpho Gabonewe, said the facility had two patients admitted in the ICU, but one has since been transferred to a general ward.
The sole ICU patient underwent surgery yesterday, he said.
“They have pretty much stabilised and are out of danger as we speak,” said Gabonewe.
Bokamoso Private Hospital’s marketing and public relations manager, Mmabatho Mashobane, said all the eight learners admitted at their facility were doing well. So far one patient has been discharged, she said.
“The patients are stable. All the four students that we had in ICU have now been discharged to the surgical ward,” she said.
Two students have been transferred from ICU to high care – a component of the former that does not require intensive care. However, Mashobane said the two were due to be transferred to general wards as well. She said one survivor was being prepared for referral to Princess Marina where they would receive further care subsequent to getting specialised medical care from the private facility.
Efforts to secure an update from Scottish Livingstone Hospital were fruitless by press time yesterday, as the hospital’s public relations department declined to comment and referred this publication to the District Commissioner, Boingotlo Ngaka. Ngaka, however, was said to be away in Letlhakeng attending to matters to do with the accident as she chairs a committee that has been set up to probe the incident.
Scottish Livingstone admitted the majority of survivors, at least 68.