A Visit At Far Death Hospital Poem by Gert Strydom

Cold like people that live only for themselves
as if any other person is cut-off
those three doctors acted that night in casualties
of far death hospital
a name given to
a hospital at the border of Springs and Brakpan
by young adult people
who had lost a child in a miscarriage

and although that place
had some of the best facilities and equipment
the primitive and almost barbaric attitude of its staff
was in stark contrast
to the modern, efficient help
experienced previously
at other times at Springs Parkland
and N17 hospitals
which are privately owned

but there we were with a young woman
who was having a miscarriage
and her husband
while she was bleeding
and did come in with a ambulance
and while she was in extreme pain
we were waiting for more
than six hours at casualties
to get any treatment from the staff.

Through the night
we waited for a ward to open
while not one of the nursing staff
or a doctor spoke a word of sympathy

and about twenty other patients
were sleeping on the hard iron benches
at the check in
until five o'clock the next morning
when a ward would be opened
and for the baby that she carried
only death came.