Umhlabuyalingana, known for its mystic roots and powerful magic, welcomes visitors seeking guidance in money matters, love, and ancestral affairs. Just across from the Hlulabantu Chess Club, a prominent road sign marks the entrance to this enchanting place, often capturing the attention of passersby who stop for a quick photo to share on social media.…
I wrote about Lucky and his Hlulabantu Chess Club and posted it on my blog, and Craig Mitchell kindly published it in his Khakibush Magazine. After the publicity, some friends passed by and left money with Lucky. Lucky asked the children what they wanted to do with it. Unanimously, they all said they should play…
Early in the New Year of 2024 I was invited to meet Lucky. He messaged me to say he had a gift for me. A few months ago I was driving up to Tembe Elephant Park in northern KwaZulu Natal with Mike and Liz. The R22 winds along the flats from Hluhluwe north to Tongaland.…
Thirty years ago I stood on the rooftop of Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg where I had started my orthopedic training. I looked up the Sweetwater Valley. It reminded me of the opening of Alan Paton’s book, Cry, the Beloved Country: “There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered…
It was a cold day in Durban. Sixteen degrees Celsius is cold for us on the East Coast of sub-tropical Africa. I had made a trip through the suburbs to drop something off for my theatre scrub sister. The roadblocks are manned by community commandos, most of who are my patients and it’s easy to pass…
I had an uneasy weekend. One the one hand I was watching the Covid-19 figures around the country and in my region of KwaZulu-Natal. We are waiting for the third wave to hit our hospital. Last week we stopped planned surgeries and reviewed our planning and capacity to deal with the surge. On the other…
T.S. Elliot wrote a collection of poems on cats. One of the poems is called “The Naming of Cats” and it starts like this: The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,It isn’t just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must…
I had been searching for a year. Because of the pandemic, in spite of the pandemic and to heal from the pandemic. Finally in May this year I was gifted what seemed to have become an impossible task. I messaged the hospital manager : “the trees have arrived. I’ll come by later in the week…
There have been many positives that have been uncovered by the pandemic. But receiving the vaccine in a developing country is good news.
Lest we ever forget. Let us remember with dignity those who are no longer with us.
There are unsung heroes behind our hard working health care workers: the cleaners, security staff, porters, administrative staff and undertakers all form the scaffold that allows us to care for patients.
Nurses are our frontline heroes. They exude peace and calm...and a sense of humour.
Health care workers are at breaking point. So when someone says Covid-19 does not exist it hurts..
Surgery is a privileged profession, one which captivates and entrances. It is also a demanding discipline where failure stabs at your heart with no forgiveness. But this morning I was captivated by the lights.
Even as the postcards started arriving the signs of the second surge were present. The statistics are anywhere to be found but a retired colleague of my brother has done his own programming and has a useful site to look at the numbers if you need to: https://www.covibes.org Back to the postcards. They are being collected…
A Postcard to Covid One thing has worried me during Covid and initially no one understood. To survive and heal after this pandemic we need to remember the story of what happened. Our modern instant access to newsfeeds and intrusive social media have overloaded us with statistics and disease progression. In a few years’ time if…
I wrote this poem at the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer and the beginning of the pandemic.
Covid-19 is still with us. The South African curve is not flattening, and the number of new cases and deaths continues to rise. I am seeing my first Covid-19 positive patient at Netcare Kingsway Hospital. He is fortunately well. Unfortunately the surgery for his broken arm will be delayed for two weeks. I am not prepared…
Surgery is a privileged profession in so many ways. But under the cloud of Covid-19 I discovered a new profound privilege. I had to operate on a 16 year old girl. She had injured her knee before lockdown and we had planned a knee ligament reconstruction. She was due to come into Kingsway Hospital with…
The seven days that Netcare Kingsway Hospital was closed completely became a long week. There were moments of self-doubt. Finding calm in the moments that made up the closure of our community hospital was difficult. I was paralyzed during the week my hospital was closed. I limited my news intake, and as I don’t use…
Toward the end of last year I was reading an article on disruption from Singularity University. The writer challenged businesses to think how they would respond if their customer base was suddenly lost. The challenge seemed to be based on climate change extremes and technological advances. It was a good article, and I thought about it. My…
Dear Nurses In another world I would have been an engineer sitting behind a computer solving other management problems. But thanks to an inspirational ICU nurse I changed from engineering to medicine. Now in this world, as a doctor, I am a humble part of the team at Kingsway Hospital that is managing the Covid-19…
Is this all a dream? Six weeks ago I was placed in self-isolation by my hospital for ten days. “I had a dream that you asked me to polish your shoes” my maid, Londiwe, messaged me a few days later. Now you should know I have never asked her to shine my shoes. Erasmus does…
Dear Nurses I am so proud of all of you. You have applied yourself to everything that is new. You have patiently listened as we explain protocol after protocol, and then frustrated you by changing it the next day. I am proud of how you showed care to my 99-year-old patient whose hair is perfectly coiffed and…
This collection on http://www.archive.org houses the speeches of Peter Stathoulis, my late father, a prominent member of the Greek diaspora in South Africa. The speeches, numbering around one hundred, cover aspects of his life and his involvement in the Greek community in Alberton and South Africa from the 1960s to the late 2000s. They serve…
This week sees me in the office only for a few hours. I decided to drive across the city yesterday to meet with supportive friends for lunch. All three of us are fully vaccinated. Along the way in the suburbs there were still people parked at strategic barriers erected to prevent free movement into the…
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