Stag party ends in tragedy
2007-08-23 09:44
Rustenburg - The wedding day a woman had looked forward to turned to tragedy after her future husband died in bed next to her the night before.
Gerhard Pieterse, 33, collapsed during his bachelor's party earlier that evening and never regained consciousness. His wife-to-be believed that he could still have been alive if Rustenburg's provincial emergency services had reacted faster.
"They turned my wedding day into a nightmare," said Gerda Pretorius, 43, on Wednesday.
According to Pretorius, there was nothing wrong with Pieterse, an assistant fitter at Wonderkop Xstrata at Marikana, before he collapsed.
He was, however, "quite jolly" after a couple of beers and a number of glasses of Sambuca.
She and her children from a previous marriage threw him a small bachelor's party as it was to be his first marriage.
They called the city's emergency services when they failed to wake up Pieterse, but there were apparently no ambulances available.
Pretorius insisted, and an ambulance arrived at the house about an hour and a half later at about 23:30.
Pieterse was still unconscious despite a cold bath.
Two paramedics put him on a drip and gave him two injections. It should have revived him, but according to Pretorius he didn't respond to the treatment at all.
"I begged them to take him to hospital," said Pretorius.
The ambulanceman allegedly said Pieterse was just drunk. He had to sleep it off, and would wake up with a hangover the next day, they said.
"I sat with him until past 03:00, wiping his face with a cold washcloth. I was too afraid to go to sleep, but tiredness overwhelmed me. Gerhard didn't open his eyes once or talk to me.
Pretorius woke up about an hour later.
She wanted to wake Pieterse up to tell him about the previous night's incident, but could feel that he was "ice cold and not breathing anymore".
The provincial emergency services were again called, but they again didn't have an ambulance at hand. In desperation, Pretorius called a private ambulance service, but it was too late.
A private paramedic said patients who received a drip must be taken to hospital for further treatment and observation.
The paramedics who'd treated Pieterse previously indicated that he was a priority three (P3) patient on a report form - meaning the patient is awake and able to walk around.
A post-mortem was expected to be done in Pretoria on Thursday. According to Pretorius he had been complaining about being tired.
"I cannot describe how I feel. He so looked forward to the next day. I've never experienced so much love in my whole life.
"I never thought it existed. I don't know what I'm going to do without him," she said sadly.