Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, affectionately known as Bara
Johannesburg Trauma Elective
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By Tae Lee (98-08)
o, even before boarding my flight at Heathrow, I had reservations heading for my one-month medical trauma elective. A UK colleague five weeks into her placement had emailed me that five students had already suffered needlestick injuries, from treating a patient population in which at least one in three have HIV. Not the most welcoming news before take off.
Johannesburg is a city well known for its wealth of natural resources, history and diversity. Unfortunately for a place that was once christened Egoli or “the land of gold” by the Zulu populous, poverty and unemployment have been rife in modern times, with crime and violence topping the agenda: Louis Theroux’s Law and Disorder television documentary certainly paints this raw picture.
My place of work was to be the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital – the third largest hospital and the largest trauma centre in the world – that serves the adjacent Soweto township; a remnant of the apartheid era that evicted the black South Africans from central to south west Johannesburg. This hospital, affectionately known as Bara, attracts students and doctors worldwide who want their taste and hands-on experience of trauma. A weekend shift here is equivalent to half a decade’s worth of experience at a UK major trauma centre; it is unrivalled.
