IN MEMORY OF DR MAPELA

 The other day one of my colleagues sent me an interesting photo from 2017. It is me in Chris Hani Baragwanath with my senior unit registrars. The image is captured as we are walking in one of the wards, and we accidentally happen to be wearing matching blue scrubs. I was thrilled to be working in Bara. Being exposed to a lot of different cases and growing well in my clinical and surgical skills.

A specific registrar who is standing in the front was Dr Mapela. We rotated together for a major part of our registrar training. I learned a lot from him. He was much older than the other registrars I had worked with. He had a lot of knowledge and skill. He would often challenge the other seniors and consultants in the ward round, pull out the latest piece of evidence, and win the arguments.

I remember he was on call for gynae and I was cutting caesarean sections. I had offered to do any gynae emergency cases so I would get more experience in that field. The one ectopic case I started doing happened to be in the isthmus part of the fallopian tube I called him for help and he showed me how to do a wedge resection and achieve haemostasis.

We later rotated in Rahima Moosa Hospital together and had a good time in late Dr Bera’s obstetric unit. I ended up in a different gynaecology rotation from Dr Mapela but still kept in touch, I knew that his gynae theatre list was on Mondays. After a Sunday shift if the night had not been busy I would usually join him for the second gynaecology case. We would do a hysterectomy together. He would do his side with the ligature and I would do my side the old-fashioned way trying to master the art of tying knots.

There came 2020, the covid pandemic, and everything went upside down. I was in my second year of registrar training and Dr Mapela was doing his last year. he stayed in Potchefstroom, and had requested to finish his time with the Klerksdorp rotation in December 2020. when he was busy with a difficult Caesar in a Covid-positive patient he got infected, was admitted to ICU, and passed away in January 2021. We were all devastated. He will always have a special place in my heart. I am where I am today because of him. 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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