Voilla Ncube at her home in Johannesburg. She lost her leg while at Charlotte Maxeke hospital and has to now use a wheelchair. Picture: Getrude Makhafola
It is hard to comprehend Voilla Ncube’s living nightmare.
She went into hospital to have her diabetic toe removed in a relatively simple procedure but was allegedly abused, starved and later came around after surgery to discover her leg had been amputated without her knowledge or permission.
Even now, rendered disabled and not fit for work, she suffers insult on top of horrific injury as hospital staff pester her to return the wheelchair she now has to use to get around.
Worse, the hospital staff at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg believe she should be grateful to them because at least she got out alive.
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What they are saying doesn’t make sense on some counts.
They claim she suffered a severe kidney infection yet, when her employer’s family took her to another hospital, tests showed no sign of kidney trauma.
The Gauteng department of health treated our questions with the same disdain as its employees treated Ncube… not replying to them, despite the fact they have known of the situation since last year.
It is beyond inhumane that a vulnerable person should be treated in such a callous way – yet that is not unusual for poor people in the mindless state health machine.
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