Family still looking for answers
The Senoane family is blaming the hospital for their son’s death.
Three years after Thabang Senoane died, in January 2017, at Thembisa Hospital, his family is still waiting for answers and postmortem results from the hospital. The Senoane family is blaming the hospital for their son’s death.
Relating a gloomy and murky narrative to this paper about the events that led to the death of their son, Nontobeko Senoane, Thabang’s mother, said her son’s life could have been saved had the hospital staff reacted with urgency.
“Our first encounter with the hospital was in September 12, 2016, after Thabang was in a car accident in the R25 Road near Bapsfontein. We called for an ambulance around 9pm, but it only came around midnight. The metro police came and worked on the scene for hours and even left before the ambulance arrived,” she said.
She said the ambulance eventually arrived and took her son to the hospital.
“When we got to the hospital, the nurses refused to give him medical attention, arguing that he was fine. We insisted he be checked, to no avail. So we decided to leave.
“In December that year, he started having complications and we decided to take him to a private doctor who, after examining him, recommended that we immediately take him to the hospital for scans as he needed serious medical attention,” she said.
She said when they got to the hospital, Thabang was having trouble breathing. The family asked for an oxygen cylinder, but were refused these.
“After asking for the oxygen cylinders several times, the hospital staff, with the help of their security personnel, came into the ward and tied my son to the bed, saying he was crazy. But he kept on screaming, asking for oxygen. They didn’t help him until he stopped breathing.”
“Seeing this, the doctor in charge asked that he be given the oxygen, but that was too little too late,” she said.
After their son’s death, Senoane said they wrote to the hospital and even asked for the postmortem results, but until now their letters have never been replied to and no postmortem results ever released.
The hospital spokesperson, Nothando Mdhluli, promised that the hospital will launch a full-scale investigation once they have all the necessary documentation from the family, such as file numbers.
