After the murder of 21-year-old Jian-Pierre During on a Roodekrans koppie on 16 July, a resident discovered a dangerous trail left behind by paramedics. Used latex gloves, breathing apparatus and syringes were found on scene days after the murder.
This amounts to negligence as the medical waste has the potential of causing further harm – something paramedics aim to prevent. The name that came up in the allegations was ER24. ER24 multi-media journalist Luyanda Mjija confirmed that their paramedics were on scene, but also added that they were not the culprits.
“ER24 values the public’s view of the company and trust in us; with that said, we take allegations of this nature seriously as we value the safety and well-being of our community members,” says Majija.
“We can confirm that our medics attended the scene in Roodekans on 16 July where a man was shot and later died on scene. We also can confirm that our medics assisted in treating the patient who had been shot at that location. We would like to clarify however, that although our most senior responding medic was present on scene, she and her team were assisting medics from City of Johannesburg EMS as well as Netcare 911 on the scene with CPR.
“Statements were obtained from the responding crew of ER24 and a list of equipment/ stock used was included in this statement. It also makes mention that no equipment/ stock from ER24 was left on the scene as ER24 was not the primary treating service on scene. However, ER24’s senior medic did assist in the declaration of the patient, which requires no stock to be used (as indicated on the photo).
“ER24 has a strict policy governing the disposal of medical waste and any contravention of this policy would lead to disciplinary action.” The record will contact the other two services for comment.
