Nosiphiwo Gunuza (43) from Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, who was the first college graduate in her family and was recently crowned South Africa’s Rural Nurse of the Year for 2023, said the feeling of saving lives never loses its importance for her.
One of nine siblings born near Lusikisiki – along the Eastern Cape coast – Gunuza has worked as operational manager at the Ntafufu Clinic since 2021, managing a team of seven nurses. Before that she was based at Goso Forest Clinic.
At Ntafufu Clinic, patients are treated for hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy and psychiatric conditions, while pregnant women and children are seen for the expanded immunisation programme. The biggest challenge in the area, she said, remains HIV, writes Biénne Huisman in Spotlight.
Key area in early ARV rollout
From 2002 to 2005, Lusikisiki served as South Africa’s first rural antiretroviral roll-out base – a programme spearheaded by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
For the past three years MSF has been supporting a programme to provide care and treatment for people with HIV/Aids in this sub-district of 150 000 inhabitants serviced by one hospital and 12 clinics.
Lusikisiki represents one of the poorest and most densely populated rural areas of South Africa. Less than half the population lives in formal housing and up to 80% live below the poverty line.
In 2012, it was decreed one of South Africa’s 10 National Health Insurance pilot sites.
‘My mom and dad were both crying’
Gunuza has a daily drive in her Toyota SUV to Ntafufu Clinic, to open it at 8am. Cell reception is a challenge here, and there is no reception at the clinic.
“My background did not really allow for me to be successful in life. I have a poor background, being raised by people who were never educated, and becoming the first person in my family to graduate.”
Each month, she delivers food parcels to her family home, to her parents and five surviving siblings.
“My parents worked so hard to make sure that what they didn’t become in life, I would become. My dad always says when you do something good or bad, it doesn’t end with you. It comes back to the parents. … this award is not about me only. It is about my parents and their honour too.”
Born at St Elizabeth Hospital in Lusikisiki, Gunuza matriculated in 1997 at the Hillbrow Senior Secondary School in the area, before completing a diploma over four years at the Lilitha College of Nursing’s Lusikisiki campus.
‘That feeling of saving a soul’
A standout moment from Gunuza’s career happened in August last year, when she saved a 15-year-old boy who arrived at Ntafufu Clinic with dire breathing difficulties. Because of network connectivity, staff could not summons an ambulance.
“When he arrived, he was gasping,” Gunuza said. “It was so bad. He was in a very bad condition. After some minutes of resuscitation, seeing the prognosis was very poor, I decided we should move him to another level of care to save his life.
“So I took an oxygen cylinder and asked somebody to drive while I continued giving him chest compressions, to help him breathe until we arrived at St Elizabeth Hospital 20km away… and he was still alive. He was admitted for a week.”
The teenager was discharged in good health, able to continue his studies.
“Afterwards he said to me: ‘Thank you so much. I thought I was losing my life.’ That feeling of having saved a soul…It doesn’t go away, not even for a single moment.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Rural doctor of the year gives back to community that shaped her
Spotlight: Little or no improvement in dire state of Eastern Cape hospitals