A Mpumalanga family went for days believing that their relative was recovering well at a hospital in Delmas, only to find her decomposed body in the morgue a week later.
The Simelane family from Botleng township has told of their trauma which saw them view several bodies as they were searching for their relative, Deliwe Simelane, 57, who they took to the notorious Bernice Samuel Hospital on April 25.
Speaking to Sowetan yesterday, Simelane's niece Dudu Simelane said her aunt was first admitted to the facility early in April where she was treated for chronic high blood pressure and diabetes.
"She was discharged on April 19 but her condition deteriorated and we took her to the facility again on April 25," said Dudu.
Though her hospital file does not show a date of admission, a mortuary registry which Sowetan saw yesterday showed that the date of death was April 26, just a day after her family left her at the facility.
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The incident is among a litany of cases of negligence that have recently come to the fore, with families reporting that their relatives were not being cared for properly at the facility.
Dudu said they wanted answers because since they left her aunt at the hospital, they had been speaking to different nurses who told them that she was recovering well.
"On April 27, when we called the hospital from the security quarters at the hospital, a nurse went as far as telling us that she had been removed from the oxygen concentrator because her health had improved," a distraught Dudu said.
She said when they left Simelane at the facility, she was at casualty ward and they were told that they would not be allowed to visit her due to Covid-19 regulations.
"We went [to the hospital] every day and stood at the gate and tried our luck with the security [to get in]. So we would call the ward [using a phone at the security quarters] and the nurses blatantly lied to us and assured us she was recovering and getting strong."
She said on April 29, when they called the facility again, a nurse told them that Simelane had been discharged. They were dismayed and demanded answers, only to be told that they should go look for her at their other relatives' homes.
They reluctantly went on a search, calling and going to their close relatives' homes but no one had seen her.
"We went to the hospital on Sunday [May 2] as we were trying to understand how she was discharged, we were arrogantly dismissed and told to look for her from our relatives' homes again.
"It was surprising that she would have left the hospital and gone to any other relative because she came to live with us so that we could look after her due to her ill health. When we left her at the hospital on April 25, she was weak and was sitting on a wheelchair. She couldn't have walked anywhere by herself because she was too sick," she added.
Dudu's husband Andrew Thankge said they had to fight to gain access into the hospital on May 2 after they were dismissed again.
He said they refused to leave and demanded to see the matron who met with them and promised to look into the matter. "We had already conveyed the message to relatives in other provinces that she is Ok. Shockingly, we had to tell them that she was found dead at the mortuary after a week," he said.
He said they received a call from the matron on May 3, informing them that she had found Simelane and thst she was dead. They were asked to come to the facility to positively identify her body.
"My wife and other relatives went to identify her and had to view three other bodies. They found that her body was now blueish-greyish in colour, was bloated and decomposed.
"She was in a bad state, so we buried her within two days after finding her body. We have no closure and had no time to mourn her. We are hurt and deserve answers but no one said anything."
A redress meeting was held at the facility yesterday and said they would escalate the matter to health MEC Sasekani Manzini's office.
Hospital acting CEO Sibusiso Mahlangu said the hospital had started an investigation into the matter which would reveal who was on duty and who confirmed that Simelane was recovering.
Mahlangu would not answer questions about where Simelane died and when or why she was not registered on admission.
Department of health spokesperson Dumisani Malamule did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Accusations of ill-treatment and negligence mount
The Bernice Samuel Hospital in Delmas, Mpumalanga, has been accused of ill-treatment and negligence before.
In April, Sowetan reported a number of stories of patients who claimed ill-treatment or negligence against staff members.
In baby Lwandle Sweleni's case, nurses claimed the newborn baby had pulled out a drip which then led to her hand getting sceptic. He mother Mbali was never informed about this. Lwandle's arm was later amputated at the Witbank Hospital a few days later.
Three doctors and a nurse were suspended.
Provincial health spokesperson Dumisani Malamule did not respond to questions about the matter yesterday.
More than 10 families handed over a memorandum of grievances to the department of health demanding action be taken against staff at the facility a month ago.
In another case, Mandisa Mkhumbeni now relies on diapers after an alleged botched operation that left her with a punctured bladder.
Mkhumbeni, 29, said she was mistakenly diagnosed with cervical cancer and had been given medication for the bladder infection before a catheter was inserted to drain the urine to assist her.
Another patient, Mbali Jiyane, 24, claimed that she lost her womb after doctors at the hospital left the placenta inside her stomach after she gave birth through a Caesarean Section last year.
Laiza Mbokwane claimed that her four-month-old grandchild was left with a gaping wound on her buttocks after she was injected and bandaged by a nurse at the hospital after being admitted for fever.
The community embarked on a march to the hospital and submitted a list of grievances. Their list included that at least one relative be allowed to visit a patient throughout their stay so that families can be assured their loved ones were still alive while hospitalised there.
The department allowed for that to happen but yesterday hospital acting CEO Sibusiso Mahlangu said they did not have resources to allow that to happen and had stopped the visits.
When Sowetan visited the facility yesterday, families were being turned away at the main entrance by security. They were not even allowed to leave the food they had brought for their loved ones.
Malamule did not respond to questions on this yesterday.
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