Injuries were life-threatening

2003-02-18 22:55

Cape Town - A doctor in a hospital trauma unit had to jump a queue of patients to urgently attend to an alleged road-rage victim, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Tuesday.

Dr Kachinga Sichizya was testifying at the trial of Alberto Saunders, 21, who has pleaded not guilty before magistrate Edmund Patterson to two counts of attempted murder.

The hearing is a sequel to an incident in Table View in the early hours of February 2 last year, when Saunders, apparently enraged because the car behind had flashed bright lights at him, allegedly attacked the occupants, friends Marc Combrink and Marc Walden with an aluminium baseball bat.

The two victims landed in hospital with serious head injuries.

Sichizya told the court he treated Walden at Somerset Hospital the night after the incident.

He said Walden was "vomiting, confused and disoriented" from head injuries.

The hospital's trauma section had been exceptionally busy that night, and although Walden had arrived around 20:00, he only got to the patient around 22:00.

When the doctor first saw Walden, he realised Walden's condition was life-threatening, causing the doctor to jump the queue to give him urgent attention.

Magistrate apologises In an unusual development, the magistrate apologised to Saunders for his absence from court on Monday, when the hearing was supposed to have resumed, but was instead delayed to Tuesday.

Patterson said a burglary at his holiday home at the Wilderness had caused his unexpected absence.

He said circumstances had left him with no option but to rush to the burgled house as it had had to be urgently re-secured, and this could not be done without his presence.

However, Patterson's absence from the proceedings on Monday had ramifications for both prosecutor Megan Blows and Saunders himself.

Blows said she had with difficulty secured the attendance on Monday of another medical doctor whose testimony was crucial to the state, but who had only been available on Monday.

He would only be available again late next month, she told the court.

Saunders' defence team, counsel Andre Botha and attorney Andre van Graan, said Saunders was fast running out of funds, and could ill-afford Monday's wasted legal costs.

The hearing continues on March 28.

- SAPA