Tuesday night in Lotus Gardens.

Tuesday night in Lotus Gardens 

It's 8 PM in Lotus Gardens and there is a bit of an emergency. A 19-year-old is sick, the second time in a few weeks. Doctors’ offices are closed, Kalafong Hospital no doubt a blessing to the community of Atteridgeville and surrounding areas but it is an administrative nightmare in a situation like this. The person who is sick is my little brother. He must have contracted a bug. Everyone in the family at my granny’s house is a little bit sick. Starting with my nephew, who is only 11 months old, he just spent the day at a day hospital called Medicross. Now what can I say to my little brother? He feels weak and a bit tired. He feels as if my granny’s home is not the place to fight this bug and wants somewhere better. He thinks of the hospitals in town. There are two giants in town. Medforum and Louis Pasteur Private Hospital. A viable option but sounds drastically out of pocket (expensive). 

I think back to recent history my cousin took her daughter to the hospital where she was struggling with an eye infection. My niece ended up spending seven days in the hospital, for something that was apparently very treatable at home. Some of the procedures performed on her in that time include cleaning her stomach and stuff of the sort. Whether these were necessary or not only Heaven knows but I know that she is on medical aid and that could have been maybe some incentive to keep the patient longer. 

Now back to the 19-year-old, what do we do? He has no medical aid but does have some savings set aside. He just wants to get better. How do I advise, how would you advise? I look at the medical field in Atteridgeville and in the whole Phelindaba region which, to me, includes Lotus Gardens and Atteridgeville, Saulsville and the Atteridgeville extensions and Moshenguville. Looking at this whole region I wonder what present solutions are there for a situation like this.