An opposition party member in South Africa asked authorities on Tuesday to investigate if world heavyweight boxing champion Corrie Sanders was turned away from a hospital before he died of a gunshot wound.
Jack Bloom, a health spokesman for the Democratic Alliance, said an inquiry was needed to see if Sanders was denied treatment at Pretoria’s Steve Biko Academic Hospital because he was shot by armed robbers outside the Pretoria area.
The former WBO champion died at another hospital in South Africa’s capital city - the Kalahong Hospital - after he was shot in the arm and stomach at a family celebration at a restaurant in the town of Brits, in the neighbouring North West province, on Saturday night.
“It is possible that his life could have been saved if he was treated at the specialist facilities at Steve Biko, rather than the lower-level Kalahong Hospital which has a poor reputation,” Bloom said. “It is completely unlawful for a hospital to turn away a severely wounded patient based on where he sustained his injury.”
Officials at the state hospital couldn’t immediately be contacted for comment. It was reported that Sanders also couldn’t go to a private hospital closer to where he was shot because he had no medical insurance.
Former world heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis and current titleholders Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko have all paid tribute to Sanders, who died in the early hours of Sunday.