Pages

20100610

Afrikaner cancer patient maltreated at hospital

 

Terminal leg-cancer patient Gert Dippenaar, 67, got a blackened eye and a headwound after he fell at the Pretoria (“Tswane”) district hospital.

-----------------------------

 Terminal leg-cancer patient Gerrit Dippenaar (67), now is recovering at home with a blackened eye and a head-wound after alleged maltreatment by nursing staff at the Pretoria District Hospital. The rural Afrikaner, originally from the Great-Marico in North West province, had fallen on his head on Friday-night and injured himself.  Due to the cancer, he is unable to walk on his own. He tried to raise the nurses to help him get to the toilet but ‘there was nobody there,’ he said, and when he tried himself, he fell. Wife Hanna, 63, said that a day earlier, she had offered to stay at his bedside to help him overnight – but the nurses ‘wouldn’t let us and insisted that that was their work,” she said.

Dippenaar Gert terminal cancer patient maltreated at Pretoria District Hospital June92010_Beeld_LisaHnatowitz“We found him the following morning, befouled, with a headwound and bruises after he was admitted to ward 6 on Friday-night.’ 

He was also hungry and thirsty: his food and drink had been placed out of reach on a ‘blood-smeared bedside table’ and nobody bothered to help the terminally-ill man eat or drink, either, the family said.

Mr Dippenaar said he had called loudly to nurses to help him to the toilet ‘but there was nobody there.

“The nurses just left me there. At no stage did any of them ever tell me where the toilet was or the call button,’ he said.  “I remember falling and trying to get back up on the bed. I ended up between the wall and the bed. Nobody helped me. One security guard came walking past at one stage and asked me what I was doing on the floor. As if one would deliberately go and lie down on the floor.’

Bring your own linnens, blankets and food – and don’t forget to feed him yourself…

Mrs Dippenaar was also asked a day earlier by a doctor to bring their own bed-linnens and blankets. His daughter Alana Liebenberg, 30, said: “Nobody bothered to give him food or water. And the wash basin in which I wanted to wash my hands after helping him, was full of old vomit.’  The rural family now lives on a smallholding west of Pretoria. On Sunday they insisted on taking Mr Dippenaar home: they would look after him themselves. they said. 

Mrs Dippenaar also issued a warning -- ‘families of terminally-ill patients should be aware of the fact that the Pretoria (“Tshwane’ ) District Hospital’s personnel are perhaps not capable of handing serious cases properly.’  She added that she didn’t know the reason why: whether it was due to unwillingness or a lack of personnel.

“And bring your own food – and also remember that if you don’t feed your relatives yourselves, they won’t get any food,’ she added. Beeld tried to obtain comment from the hospital and the provincial health department – but they hadn’t bothered to respond by the time of going to press. Picture by  Lisa Hnatowitz http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Terminaal-sieke-beland-tussen-muur-en-bed-20100609

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.