From the left: Prof Gert van Zyl (Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences),
Prof Marlene Viljoen (previous Head: School of Nursing),
Prof Francis Petersen (Rector and Vice-Chancellor),
Prof Tiney Crous (previous Head: Department of Physiotherapy),
and Prof Philip Badenhorst (previous Head: Department of
Haematology and guest speaker).
Photo: Johan Roux
The Faculty of Health Sciences is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. To kick off the celebrations, they hosted a cocktail evening (10 March) with some reflections on memorable moments in time by Prof Philip Badenhorst, a former Head of the Department of Haematology and Cell Biology.
Witness to growth
Prof Badenhorst started working in Bloemfontein in December 1969, witnessing first-hand the growth of the faculty from a bare field to the completion of a striking building complex; from a few staff members to an institution on par with the best by the time he retired forty years later in 2009.
Prof Badenhorst kept his speech light, with stories from the past. One of these stories was titled, ‘Look who is peeping’.
“In the late sixties, early seventies, safari suits became fashionable but were not prescribed dress for civil servants. Before we could wear safari tops, there had to be an official investigation into the matter, which resulted in a detailed report with specific directives. The one directive that made me smile was the one which stated that when you wear a safari top with short pants, you also had to wear underpants,” Badenhorst said to laughter from those present.
Two of his stories involved an unnamed night matron in a hospital. On his second encounter with the matron one Friday night – a day before a rugby test in the Free State Stadium – Prof Badenhorst was on casualty duty.
“… It was a bitterly cold night, and in the early hours of Saturday morning I was woken by old varsity friends and colleagues from Karl Bremer Hospital in Belville, looking for a place to sleep. They made two miscalculations.”
Stories from the past
“Firstly, they misjudged the time they would arrive in Bloemfontein, and secondly, they had no idea how cold it could get in Bloemfontein in winter. I advised them to go to the doctor’s quarters, only to hear that they had been there and that there was not even room for a mouse. Even the lounge was packed like a can of sardines.”
Prof Badenhorst continued: “I knew that they wouldn’t survive the night in a cold car and allowed them to use the empty trolleys in Casualties, dishing out blankets to keep them warm. No sooner had I gone back to sleep when I was confronted by the night matron, telling me that I had no right to allow people to sleep in Casualties, that a hospital is for sick people and not a boarding house, etc., etc.”
“She went on and on and left me no choice other than to formally admit my friends for observation on the grounds of possible food poisoning after eating suspicious meat pies on their way to Bloemfontein. Of course, the matron was furious but could do nothing to me.”