Ms Hugolene Roos was shocked by the “unsympathetic and compassionless” nursing staff who treated her young son on Tuesday evening after his calf was ripped open by a dog.

She and her son were walking home from the OK Grocer in Meyer Street at 16:30 when a Rottweiler-cross escaped from his yard and grabbed her six-year-old by the leg.

“The owner had just arrived home and was pulling his car into the driveway when his dog managed to slip through the open gate and grab my son by the leg,” a shocked Ms Roos said.
The owner and his wife immediately ran to their aid upon hearing the commotion and instantly offered to take care of the medical costs.

“I don’t blame the couple for the incident and realise that it was just an accident, but I am very upset with the substandard treatment we received from the Middelburg Provincial Hospital.”

Ms Roos says they first rushed their son to Med24, where they were turned away because they didn’t have the necessary injections at hand. They were referred to Dagbreek Pharmacy, where the sister on duty informed them that the wounds were too deep and that her son would need to receive anaesthesia for the stitches.

“We then took him to the provincial hospital, where we waited three hours before a nurse could finally see him.”

The nurse administered tetanus, rabies and antibiotic injections, but then told Ms Roos that they couldn’t stitch up the wounds due to the amount of bacteria in a dog bite.
They bandaged her son’s leg but instructed her to open it up again at home “to let the wound dry out”.

When Ms Roos asked for a doctor’s note to excuse her son from school, the nurse allegedly asked why she wouldn’t be sending him to school.

“It’s not that I expect the hospital staff to drop everything and help me first, they see a lot of traumatic cases each day! What bothered me was the cold and compassionless demeanour the nurse had towards my son! No effort was made to calm him down and what the nurse did, I could have well just done myself at home!”

Ms Roos also fails to understand why the wound could not be stitched up due to “bacteria”, instead of doctors just cleaning it properly.

The couple decided to take their son to Middok 24/7 on Wednesday (today) for treatment.

“It’s just pathetic! We have a duty to keep our children safe but can’t even seek the necessary medical help when it is needed. Not everyone has the money for medical aid schemes!” Ms Roos concluded.

• The incident was reported to the Department of Health but no response was received by the time of publication.