Emergency Medial No Response

I had a student sleep over the weekend. Sunday morning he woke with what later transpired a with a burst appendix. I immediately took him to Kingsbury Hospital. He did not have his discovery card but is on his Father's medical aid whom was travelling aboard.. I tried phoning Discover Emergency Medical Assistance number to try and get his Discovery Card Number to admit to hospital. No answer. Phoned again and again and again. No response - just ringing. Phoned all the options given by call centre, was answered by road assistance , insurance etc. etc but no Emergency Medical Assistance. Eventually an individual at road assistance patched me through to ER 24 response. Unfortunately ER24 do not have access to Discovery database to look up the Discovery number. At hospital we phoned the ***to get info to admit the patient. Unfortunately the number goes to voice mail stating it only operates weekdays. Eventually I had to drive to the student's flat in Stellenbosch to get his Discovery card before being admitted to Hospital. I fear for the day a life threatening situation occurs and you need to depend on Discovery for any emergency assistance. Public be warned!