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A family from Kimberley in the Northern Cape are trying to come to terms with the sudden death of a young doctor from the city.
A memorial service was held on Friday for Dr Magda Fourie at the Dutch Reformed Church Bakenskop in Kimberley. Magda, a medical doctor, died last week when she suffered an epileptic fit in the Mediclinic Gariep while she was on duty.
Her husband, Jaco, owner of the Areion Warmblood Stud & Dressage Academy, posted on Facebook on 27 July. “The first day without Magda has been tough: coming to terms with this unspeakable tragedy hurts a great deal. Being used to having your person around and now knowing she’ll never wake up next to you, ever again, is so much harder than I expected. I miss her terribly, and so do our children. The finality of it all is so real.”
The couple had been married for 10 years and have three children, Hanneke (6), Adelinde (4) and André (10 months).
Denise Coetzee, spokesperson for Mediclinic Gariep, says Magda had been on duty in the hospital’s emergency room on the night of 25 July.
“She suffered an epileptic fit in the emergency room. ER personnel and other doctors revived her, after which she was admitted to the high-care unit. She passed away on the morning of 26 July.”
Denise says Magda hadn’t been a full-time employee. “She’d been in the middle of her second shift as temporary doctor when she fell ill.”
In another Facebook post, Jaco describes how for the first time in 10 years he’d been to church on his own, without his wife next to him. “Today I sat in church alone, for the first time in our 10 years together. A widower and fragile human being, but it was as if the message from the pulpit was directed straight at me: search out the positive things, mean something to others, go live a full life!”
He goes on to say that though he misses his wife terribly, he realises how Magda had lived those ideals. “I should use her example to guide my children and to live this new chapter in my life.”
