A man who participated in a Road Traffic Inspectorate recruitment fitness test died of a heart attack, not hyperthermia, the transport department says.
|||Pietermaritzburg - A man who participated in a KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) recruitment fitness test died of a heart attack, a commission of inquiry in Pietermaritzburg heard on Wednesday.
Ravenda Padayachee SC, for the transport department, disputed that Lungile Wambi's death was caused by hyperthermia, as stated on his death certificate.
“The diagnosis of hyperthermia was speculative,” Padayachee said.
He said Wambi twice went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.
The commission was appointed by KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize earlier this year to probe the deaths of eight people who took part in a four kilometre run at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg in December.
This formed part of a fitness test for RTI job applicants.
More than 34,000 people qualified to apply for the 90 advertised trainee posts. A total of 15,600 applicants attended a fitness test on December 27 and a similar number on December 28.
Padayachee further disputed Grey's Hospital's diagnosis that Wambi had heat stroke.
He told the commission that to be diagnosed with heat stroke, a person had to have a temperature of over 40 degrees Celsius. For a diagnosis of hypherthermia the temperature had to be between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius.
Padayachee said Wambi's blood sugar levels were low. They had dropped from 2.5 millimoles a litre to 2.1 millimoles a litre, which had resulted in him suffering two heart attacks.
He said when paramedics treated Wambi they did not treat him for his low blood sugar. - Sapa