Lagos mercy trip ends in SA man’s death
WHEN South Africa undertook the biggest repatriation of human remains in its history, it turned to the man who wrote the book on coping with medical emergencies.
Peter Fuhri was the Department of Health’s go-to man for emergency medicine and diaster management.
He led the team that went to Lagos to collect the bodies of the 81 South Africans who died when a guesthouse collapsed at TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations on September 12.
But the arrival home of the remains last Sunday — 66 days after the collapse — was a bittersweet occasion.
Fuhri had died two days earlier after contracting malaria in Lagos. He fell ill after a week in the city and was treated at a local hospital.
His son-in-law David Miller said Fuhri died four days before
DISASTER EXPERT: Peter Fuhri contracted malaria his 63rd birthday.
Anwar Mohamed, an official of the Department of Health, said Fuhri had drafted the protocols and trained the medical team for the mission. ‘‘South Africa really lost a true son.”
At Fuhri’s funeral in Pretoria East this week, Miller described him as a humble and dedicated man who loved his work.
‘‘He was a policeman in Umhlanga in Durban and after he delivered a baby using a firstaid manual he was hooked on the medical side,” said Miller.
A spokesman for the Department of Health, Popo Maja, said Fuhri had been instrumental in drawing up the emergency plans for the 2010 World Cup, the African Cup of Nations last year and the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
‘‘If anything big happened in South Africa he was involved in the medical side of it,” Maja said.
‘‘He was a wonderful soul, extremely dedicated to his work. I knew him personally and he taught me the value of having a work ethic.”
So far only 70 of the South African victims of the Lagos disaster have been identified. Many are being privately buried by their families.
Government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said DNA testing was being done to identify the remaining 11 victims.
“We cannot stop until every family has received the remains of their loved ones. We hope to have concluded the testing soon,” she said.