Speaking to Sowetan from his Benoni home in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday, the 51-year-old whose name is being withheld to protect their children, battled to save his 48-year-old wife from the flames engulfing her isolation room at their house.
"It was day 11 [June 6] of her being in quarantine at home. After all the support and medication we had given her, we did not realise she was losing it."He said his wife woke up that morning at around 4am and went to the kitchen while everybody in the house was still asleep. He and their 17-year-old son woke up to check if she was fine before they went back to bed.
"After a while we realised there was something burning. I ran to her isolation room. It was locked. I broke the door open and found her in flames. "I immediately took a blanket and tried to put out the fire until my brave eight-year-old child ran to fetch a bucket of water which she emptied on her mom in an attempt to rescue her.""She was painfully sobbing. She got up and took a heater and held it tight. I ran again and removed it from her. She was hallucinating, my heart broke and I felt so helpless.
"It was on May 26 when she came back sick from work and we thought it was flu. She went to the doctors before she tested positive the next day."