SINGLE MINDED

Author: Marina Auer

Publisher: Kwela Books

Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni

The ominous cover alone sends chills down ones spine. Looking at it I knew this is a hospital full of dread and harm. And as a super fan of horror, I just had to get in. I’m glad I did! I was not disappointed, not one bit. Written by a medical doctor, the book is a fascinating tale of what it’s like being a doctor in a township state hospital in South Africa. As author marina Auer says, “Single Minded is loosely based on my experiences during internship and community service at a hospital outside Pietermaritzburg, KZN.” The wanton decay and impunity in the book is regrettably also true. “Rats in beds; chickens in autoclaves; a crumbling edifice; a dent in the corrugated iron roof of the tunnel where a patient leapt from a window – it all happened, and so much more.”

Our heroine Murphy Meyer, is a young doctor with an unsettled past. The year is 2001 when she begins work at Eden State Hospital in Pietermaritzburg on the 1st of January. She’s thrown right into the deep-end on her very first day – mind you it is New Year’s Eve so there are plenty of casualties awaiting – with no time to settle in. The hospital is based in the poverty-stricken township of Eden Ridge and deals mainly with birth, trauma and broken bones. The state of the hospital is dire, badly in need of an overhaul and doctors are leaving in droves. Something is amiss and patients are dying at the drop of a hat. Dark forces are at full play, and maybe the stories of a menacing tokoloshe roaming the corridors are true. One thing’s for sure, Dr Murphy is in a labyrinth and the walls are quickly closing in. It’s a thrilling suspense.

Most of us already know that state hospitals are not for the faint-hearted. There are long queues, sick people sleeping on the cold floor as a result of overcrowding, misdiagnoses, lack of security and so on and so forth. As someone who goes to state hospitals both as a patient and a visitor, I’ve witnessed the dedication and the fatigue that plague hospital personnel. I’ve experienced the caring and also the callousness of medical staff. The last time I’ve stayed over, I vowed (and prayed) never to have to be there again. The author paints this picture perfectly. You see dedication amidst disarray. And the stifling progress of bureaucracy. At Eden it’s the good and the awfully bad all at once.