Horror ordeal at hospital – ‘They tied me to a bed!’
A woman claimed that she was tied to a bed in the Middelburg Hospital when she asked for toilet paper.
According to Ms Lizzy Mahlangu (45) she has been treated for tuberculosis, in Middelburg and also at the Witbank Hospital over the past few months.
In April she was admitted to the Middelburg Hospital again.
On the morning of 17 April, just before 05:00, she wanted to go to the bathroom and saw that there was no toilet paper.
She went to the sister on duty and asked her for toilet paper. What happened next will haunt her for the rest of her life.
The sister screamed at her that her illness will make the other patients sick, as it is contagious. She then called four security guards.
According to Ms Mahlangu, the security guards grabbed her by her arms and dragged her to her bed. They forced her to lay face down on the bed, where they tied her arms and legs to the bed with bandages.
“I was laying with my face in the pillow from about 05:00 to 06:30.” She said her body started aching and she used her teeth to slowly untie the knots on her arms. When she was loose she untied her feet.
She used her phone to call her sister. “I was screaming at her, ‘you must come, they are killing me!’, but a nurse grabbed the phone out of my hands! Another nurse injected me to calm me down.”
Read other stories here:
Opvolg: Verslag wys skokkende wonde
Opvolg: Bets – die statige ouma skou
Vrou lankal dood – Verpleegster sê: ‘vital signs are good’
Lees hier oor ander klagtes teen die hospitaal.
Ms Mahlangu said she was released from hospital the same day and she reported the matter to the matron immediately “who promised me that they will investigate it and come back to me.” After a week I asked if it was investigated and they replied that they are still looking for the sister. Last week I was there again and got the same answer.”
• Like in the cases of Ms Bets Claassen and Mr Pieter Wahlstrand the Observer sent her allegations to the Mpumalanga Department of Health as well as the Human Rights Commission. By the time of going to print they did not answer to our inquiry yet.
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