A doctor who testified that three people died of heat stroke after taking part in a KZN Road Traffic Inspectorate fitness test has changed her evidence.
|||Pietermaritzburg - A doctor who testified that three people died of heat stroke after taking part in a KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) fitness test changed her evidence on Tuesday.
Dr Carolyn Lee said she was not certain of her conclusion, after the transport department presented the blood and pathology results of the three participants.
She was testifying in Pietermaritzburg in an inquiry into the deaths of eight people who took part in a four kilometre run at the city's Harry Gwala Stadium in December. It formed part of a fitness test for RTI job applicants.
More than 34,000 people qualified to apply. A total of 15 600 applicants attended a fitness test on December 27 and a similar number on December 28.
Lee was the head of the Intensive Care Unit at Grey's Hospital. She assessed two of the participants who died, Lungile Wambi and Ntuthuko Sibisi. Lee did not assess a third victim, Bongiwe Mbatha, but made her findings based on medical notes she received from Edendale Hospital.
Lee said Sibisi might have suffered severe dehydration and had the precondition of diarrhoea. Wambi had multiple cardiac arrests and low blood pressure, which explained the dehydration he had, she said.
In Wambi's case heat stroke was lower down on the list of possibilities. Mbatha had features of heat stroke, but may have had an underlying, pre-existing condition.
Ravenda Padayachee, SC, for the department, said an expert would testify that if weather conditions were not conducive for fit people to participate in a 3.8km run, a 20 percent fatality rate of people with no pre-existing condition was expected. He said genetics played a large part in someone surviving a 3.8km run in hot weather.
Lee said it was possible some of the participants could have had pre-existing conditions.
Padayachee said he would call a witness who would testify that Sibisi died of fluid overload. Lee said the fluid replacement given to Sibisi was not unusual in dealing with someone who was dehydrated. She said a healthy person would not die from eight litres of fluid as they would excrete it as urine.
Padayachee said Grey's Hospital had failed to cool Sibisi down, even though it was suspected she had heat stroke.
Sapa
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