Online Reporter
Veronica Gwaze
EVERY year, as the majority of Zimbabweans partake in Christmas Day festivities, indulging in meals and exchanging gifts, health and emergency service personnel frequently face a significantly different reality.
In the corridors of hospitals and police stations and in the cabins of ambulances, the festive season is marked not by the sound of jingling bells, but rather by the wailing of emergency sirens.
For some health and emergency workers, December 25 is not a holiday — it is just another day on the job — one of the busiest on the calendar. Their Christmas stories are not about presents or pudding, but those of saving lives, calming chaos and finding fleeting moments of humanity in the midst of crises.
Busy day in office
It is a busy day in the office for the paramedic attending to a heart attack, the nurse comforting an individual in their last moments away from loved ones, and the police officer maintaining order while others engage in celebration.
These are the people who keep the world turning while we pause to celebrate.
Their stories do not often make the headlines, yet they are the reason many Zimbabweans enjoy a safe and peaceful Christmas.
This Wednesday, millions of people across the globe celebrate Christmas, in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Christmas is one of the most significant and popular holidays on the Christian calendar. But this time is often the busiest for emergency service providers.
Road traffic accidents and other disastrous incidents, resulting in loss of lives, often occur during this period.
Emergency service providers, including Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers, medical health professionals, ambulance operators, funeral home workers and fire brigades, must be present at their respective workstations for a quick response.
During the last festive season (December 15, 2023 to January 8, 2024), a total of 2 689 road traffic accidents were recorded across the country. The death toll in that period stood at 170, up from 138 during the same period in 2022. Police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said between December 2023 and January 8 this year, a total of 2 689 road accidents were recorded in the country.
“We recorded 118 fatal road traffic accidents that killed 170 people from December 15 to January 8,” he said.
“The ZRP urges drivers to be cautious on the roads to save lives. We know it is an exciting time and roads will be busy, but it does not translate to reckless driving. We will continue to enforce road rules and regulations thoroughly.”
He urged the public to report rowdy drivers at the nearest police station or by calling the National Complaints Desk number — 0242703631.
Not gloom and doom
Good things happen, too, during the festive season, bringing joy to families and health professionals. Some women deliver babies on Christmas Day and health staff, among them nurses, doctors and ambulance service providers, welcome the newborn babies to the world.
Some 92 babies were born on Christmas Day last year at Harare’ s three major hospitals. Chitungwiza had 23 babies, 12 of whom were boys while the rest were girls. Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Sally Mugabe Central Hospital recorded 25 and 44 babies, respectively.
The three facilities generally handle complicated births while clinics are expected to take care of trouble-free cases.
Resultantly, the possibility is that more babies could have been born at the various clinics on the day.
A long-awaited Christmas cheer
Former Sally Mugabe Central Hospital nurse Christine Kadandara will this year celebrate Christmas with her family.
For the many years that she worked in the medical field, she barely got the opportunity to be with her family on the day.
Being a busy season, Kadandara and her mates had to be on duty.
The festive season, said Kadandara, is often characterised by increased numbers of accidents and deaths, which means adequate manpower is needed for emergency services at such times.
“We only got to be with our families after the holidays, but I have left the field and this year I will celebrate with them,” she said.
“Sometimes I would be on standby, which equally meant no celebrations because chances were high that I would be called for duty.”
She has vivid memories of Christmas Day in 2015, a time when she was tasked with managing an emergency situation involving accident victims who had sustained severe injuries, with some having fractured limbs.
“It was a mess. I do not know how to describe the situation, but I still have the picture in my mind,” she added.
“I loved my job, but moments like these would sometimes traumatise me.”
Clemence Severa, a paramedic and ambulance driver at a local private hospital, will attend church with his family, before reporting to work on Christmas Day.
He starts work at 9am and knocks off at 9pm, hence there is no time for him to make merry with his family.
His job involves providing treatment, such as first aid or life support, to sick or injured patients. Severa also prepares patients and safely transports them to the emergency department of a hospital or other healthcare facility.
“It also means documenting and reporting observations and any treatment provided to physicians, nurses or other healthcare staff,” he said.
“I am as good as a nurse, so it means dealing directly with accident victims and performing related duties.
‘‘Therefore, we need to be on duty every holiday, as such cases are rampant at that time. For nine years, I have not spent holidays with my family. I then take days off after holidays, but I am happy because working on holidays means more money.”
At the Harare City Council’s Fire Brigade ambulance section, Shepard Tsiga will also be on duty on Christmas Day.
Tsiga, who is also the team medic for the municipality’s volleyball and basketball teams, is now used to the idea of being at work on holidays.
“This holiday is often, if not always, our busiest time of the year, so we need to have enough manpower at work,” he said.
“My family will have to make merry in my absence. This has always been the case in the past years, so I always make up time to be with them after the holiday.”
Tsiga still recalls how Christmas in 2018 left him traumatised for some time.
He feels this was his worst festive holiday in his career, which spans close to two decades. On that particular Christmas Day, he arrived at work as per his routine. Just as he and his team were preparing to commence their shift, an emergency alarm rang.
At that moment, the intercom sounded, instructing them to quickly get ready and depart for Chivhu to attend to an emergency.
“During all that time, in my mind, I thought that maybe it was one of the usual cases that we often dealt with,” he recalls.
“However, on getting there, we discovered that it was a horrific accident involving a haulage truck, which had collided with a light motor vehicle.
“The driver and all the passengers who were in the light motor vehicle had been crushed and we had to extricate them one by one. The image is still clear in my mind.”
Emotional torture
Although emergency service providers usually create time to be with their families after the holidays, it is often difficult for them to celebrate. Tsiga indicated that certain cases they encounter during the holiday season result in emotional distress, which can affect them for an extended period, potentially lasting for the remainder of their lives.
“Some of the incidents we come across take a long time to clear in our minds. Others do not even go away, so to celebrate is sometimes difficult,” he said.
David Maravanyika, a medical doctor, recalls going into the theatre for an emergency operation on Christmas Day in 2017.
An expectant mother was unconscious following an accident that had claimed her husband on the spot.
To save the baby, Dr Maravanyika had to put the mother under the knife.
“Imagine a surgery whereby you are trying to save the baby and the mother is in a really bad state,” he said.
“Throughout the surgery, I was praying silently. My fear was losing one or both of them. Such cases leave you in a bad emotional state. Remember, we are also humans and some things affect us deeply, so sometimes we have to undergo therapy.”
The business of death
Doves Funeral Services’ head of mortuary Heater Murongi will not be with his family this Christmas Day. Instead, he will join them late in the evening after work, as he has to be on call during the day.
Working on Christmas Day, he said, sometimes means being on duty during irregular hours, including evenings and weekends.
“On such holidays, we work in shifts, so it means one will either work on Christmas Day or on New Year’s Day,” he said.
“Such days often mean more work, hence the need for extra hands.
“Sometimes we even attend accident scenes, working together with the authorities. We collect the body or bodies from there for paperwork and then to the morgue.”
Murongi joined Doves in 1997 as a mortician, before being promoted to lead the company’s head office mortuary.
Despite being busy on festive holidays, Murongi notes that there has been a decline in business over the years.
This is due to the mushrooming of funeral parlours in the recent past.
“Prior to 2010, we would get very busy on such holidays, but it is no longer the case of late as some of the business is now going to these ‘small’ parlours,” he said.
Self-styled undertakers have flooded the market of late, wresting business out of established parlours.
On the other hand, Sylvester Gumbo, a mortician and founder of Madzisahwira Funerals, does not mind being away from his family on Christmas Day.
This, he said, is the busiest period, as some families often find themselves stranded due to road traffic accidents that sometimes result in deaths.
“Last year, we had very good business during the festive season. We are not celebrating death, but remember we are in business as well and we need profits,” he said.
“However, this year, looking at the trend since October, accidents are relatively low, so there may not be much business this
time.”
