‘It feels as though we’re hanging, choking by the neck’

Almost three years after poisonous fumes silently seeped through the home of a Gqeberha family, killing two siblings, the toxicology report remains outstanding.

And every minute spent waiting for grief-stricken mother Selina Ingram, who lost two of her three children in 2020, is a moment too long.

“It feels as though we’re hanging, as though we’re choking by the neck with a rope around us — we’re just waiting to be rescued,” the Kabega Park mother said.

It has been two years and 10 months since Tammy, 12, died in the Netcare Greenacres Hospital, followed closely by her brother, Matthew, 17.

The gas has since been identified as methyl bromide.

“Since the death of my children, I haven’t had a good night’s rest,” Ingram said.

The siblings and their parents fell ill on August 22 2020, allegedly after inhaling noxious fumes from one of the units in the Kabega Park complex where they stayed which was being fumigated for borer beetle.

What they did not know was that everyone else had been evacuated from the complex due to the fumigation, but the Ingrams claimed they were never informed.

Ingram said the siblings were loving, God-fearing children — Tammy a budding musician, and Matthew an avid rugby player.

“The special days like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, are affecting us badly, even the school holidays,” she said.

“Both my kids’ birthdays are in September and both of them died in September and their funerals were in September, so that month is always tough — it’s not something you can escape.

“We’ve got to face these days, we’re forced to, it’s the same every day, people think because it’s two years and 10 months already that it’s not so bad any more.

“But it is, they live on in my mind.”

She said the outstanding toxicology report was causing the family more heartache.

“It’s a very big frustration, my husband follows up ... the only thing we’re waiting for is the toxicology report from Pretoria and Cape Town ... we hardly get any calls towards my children’s case,” she said.

“It’s like we’re just trapped in a bubble, trapped in a prison but there’s nothing we can do, we must wait for these reports and there’s such a massive backlog.

“We can’t sleep at night, and if I do sleep I get nightmares.

“We’re just breathing and because we’re breathing, we have to eat and my husband needs to work, he is forced to work in order for us to survive.”

The mother said she was longing for justice.

“I think the whole of Gqeberha just wants justice,” she said.

“We are waiting every day and night for justice to be served ... the company has to be held accountable.”

At the time of the incident, Ingram had phoned her eldest son, Joshua Chetty, and his wife, Christine, in a panic at about 1.30am to tell them that the whole family was vomiting violently and they were unable to walk.

Their first thought was food poisoning or Covid-19, but then Tammy began having seizures.

They were rushed to the hospital emergency room.

Though she and her husband, Stanton, were discharged a few hours later, the children never woke from their medically induced comas.

Matthew turned 17 while in a coma.

Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said their inquest investigation was complete.

However, they are still awaiting the toxicology report from Cape Town.

“Once the outstanding toxicology report is received, the docket will be sent to the court for a formal inquest.

“In March 2021, the department of agriculture also opened a case relating to the administering and application of agricultural remedies for pest control.

“The case is investigated concurrently with the inquest,” she said.

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