After being mugged and left for dead, Jim Haswell (56) a Scottish citizen went on an ambulance ride he will never forget.
After being mugged and left for dead, Jim Haswell (56) a Scottish citizen went on an ambulance ride he will never forget.
On Saturday, 11 July at around 10am he was mugged in Port Alfred (where he had purchased a house at the end of 2008) and the perpetrators hit him on the side of his head and stole his cellphone and wallet. When he was taken to Port Alfred Hospital the medical staff found that he had sustained a cracked skull, a perforated eardrum and damage to the nerves in his face. So he was referred to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth to undergo a CAT scan to survey any possible damage to his brain.
According to Haswell, en route to Livingstone the ambulance staff stopped for pies and drinks at Beaver’s Pies at the Caltex service station in Port Alfred, leaving himself and one other patient in the back of the ambulance unattended. The ambulance headlights gave out near Alexandria, so for the rest of the trip the it was tavelling with only with the hazards lights on. Haswell says, because of this, "the trip took forever".
Grocott’s Mail contacted Port Alfred Metro Ambulance services to obtain comment on ambulance attendants stopping to buy food. The station manager, Bennie Mike confirmed that ambulances stop at the Caltex service station for refuelling as their depot in Port Alfed don’t have a fuel stop and ambulances have to travel all the way to PE wthout refuelling. The government has set up a fuel system specifically for ambulances at the service station.
After treatment, Sue Grealy, Haswell’s partner, informed Grocott’s per telephone that Haswell had been left lying on a trolley at Livingstone in the casualty ward of without bedding and in his clothes for two days because the hospital did not have enough beds in the ward. The phone lines at Livingstone Hospital were continuously busy so no comment from management could be obtained, but according to a Port Elizabeth resident who wishes to remain anonymous the hospital is always full and all specialist cases are referred to the hospital as it’s the only hospital in the Eastern Cape where CAT scans can be conducted.
Haswell is not going to sue the ambulance services and to his knowledge there have been no arrests so far. The case is being handled by the Criminal Investigating Department of the Port Alfed police.
