Babies die as South African public sector strike enters third day

Johannesburg - The public sector strike has entered its third day in South Africa and two babies have already paid the ultimate price. Police have intervened again using water cannons on medical staff that started a fire in a Johannesburg hospital .

News24 reports police were forced to use water cannons against a group of protesting health workers at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. About 50 protesters blockaded a side entrance, filled it with rubbish and set it alight. When police tried to remove the rubbish, the strikers through rubbish bins at them and set the trash alight again, whereupon the police soaked them with water, which also put out the flames. IOL reported many staff members could not use regular entrances because they were threatened with sticks and sjamboks (heavy leather or plastic whip). Dr Maggie Tarczynska, said as she prepared to crawl under the fence:

"I have to do my work, someone has to attend to patients."

And the Johannesburg-based Star newspaper reported Hungarian-South African Dr. Zoltán Riskó had to take his own life in his hands along with that of a patient at the OR Tambo hospital east of Johannesburg. Riskó was about to start emergency surgery on 80-year-old Mario Moore’s broken hip. Moore was already under anaesthetic when a mob of 50 strikers burst into the operating theatre. The strikers were armed with “knobkerries” (heavy knobbed sticks) and were forcing staff, including the Operating Room (OR) nurse, to leave. Riskó refused. He explained:

It was a desperate situation. I said my patient is my priority and this operation will take place. I called a colleague on my cell phone and asked her to come in the absence of the theatre sister

. The operating team then locked the doors leading into the OR and carried out the operation successfully. Fifty-three babies had to be moved to a private hospital after two underweight infants died. Another 23 infants had to be protected by security guards, the newspaper said. In other news, paramedics reported threats against them when they delivered emergency patients, Jacaranda Radio said. The paramedics stressed the importance of “Golden Hour,” the first 60 minutes after an accident.