Rob Ferreira Hospital denies withholding care

MBOMBELA – His family claims that he received little to no care since he was admitted that Monday.

Last week, in desperation, his former daughter-in-law, Chantelle van Wyk, took to Facebook seeking advice as to what to do, as he was not receiving any care.

“All that the doctors there say is that his bladder is a big concern, but they don’t do anything about it. We are concerned that he might die, because he is not receiving any treatment,” she wrote on Wednesday.

ALSO SEE: Man caught selling fake jobs at Rob Ferreira hospital

The post garnered wide attention, and the following day they noticed that things started changing. Willem’s wife, Rosemary (69) believes that it is due to her daughter’s post.

She said Willem fell on Saturday and got progressively more ill until she phoned for an ambulance, which took him to hospital on Monday. He was nauseous and threw up the whole time.

“He must have hurt himself inside,” she said. “They could see he was not eating, just throwing up.”

As far as the family knew, he received a rehydration drip and something for nausea, which started to clear up on Thursday. The Department of Health denied this.

The family claims that the medical staff kept insisting that he go to a clinic to obtain a referral letter. Moreover, they did not see any effort being made to diagnose or treat him and nothing was communicated to them.

“I feel as though he was lying on his deathbed, because he has not been treated for anything,” Van Wyk told Lowvelder on Thursday.

“What breaks me is that a man who was in casualty with him on Monday, died on Wednesday.

“He was lily white, he was scared because this guy died next to him.

“We prayed. I told him that he had to fight, because the doctors and nurses were not helping him. He was losing hope.”

He received an ultrasound on Friday morning.

“Pretorius told the paper in the hospital the same day that he had received a scan earlier the week, and some pills, but that he did not know who his doctor was as there was a different one every day. He died the following afternoon.

Spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, Dumisani Malamule, said Pretorius was admitted for general surgery management on Tuesday.
They referred him to urology and he was put under care of a urologist on Thursday.

A CT scan was done on Tuesday and on Thursday different tests were done including physiotherapy care, and a sonar was ordered. On Friday an ECG test indicated heart disease. He was also a chronic patient with hypertension.

Malamule claims he was also treated with medication, including Maxolon, Ridaq, Augmentin and Maxolon, since the day of his admittance.

“No history of falling was reported by the patient on admission and during his stay in the hospital,” Malamule added.

“The department is saddened by the death of the patient as proper treatment was given,” he added.

This is little consolation for the family, who received so little information about his condition that they considered transferring him to Barberton Hospital.

READ MORE: Surgery at Rob Ferreira Hospital causes worry