WATCH: ‘They took my whole leg instead of one toe’ – Inside Charlotte Maxeke hospital horror

Voilla Ncube went to Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital to get her toe removed but was instead subjected to abuse, was starved and had her whole leg amputated without her consent.

Now bound to a wheelchair and unable to work and support her family any more, Ncube tearfully relived the two-month-long trauma she suffered at the hands of nurses at Charlotte Maxeke hospital.

Ncube first went to a private clinic in October last year after her toe developed sores. This was related to her diabetes. The clinic told her the toe needed to be cut off to avoid a possible foot and leg infection.

Without medical aid or funds for the operation, the clinic told her to go to Charlotte Maxeke hospital.

ALSO READ: Time to die: SA woman to be euthanised in mercy killing in Switzerland

Alleged abuse

Her ordeal started on 16 October when she was admitted.

After two weeks in the hospital ward of waiting for surgery and without adequate care, her toe began to fester and started infecting her foot.

“The area above the painful toe turned black, and none of the nurses was able to tell me when the surgery would take place.

“A doctor finally arrived to get me ready for the operating room. I signed papers agreeing to have my leg cut off just after the ankle. The doctor spoke to me about the surgery.”

Weak, hungry, with a very low blood sugar level and in excruciating pain, Ncube woke up to find that her leg was not stitched up after the surgery.

According to Ncube, her wound was also never washed or dressed.

It all got worse for her when her employer’s daughter Marina Barkley started calling the hospital to complain about Ncube’s mistreatment and her being given paracetamol only for her agonising post-surgery pain.

A nurse then allegedly slapped her across the face after she slipped and fell in the bathroom.

“I wasn’t used to hopping on one leg, there was no one to help me. No crutches were available so I could go to the bathroom.

“A nurse was with me when I slipped, she slapped me across my face. I cried, asking myself what is it that I did to the staff that they treat me so horribly.”

ALSO READ: Gauteng health takes action after heated Edenvale Hospital doctors’ altercation

Ncube said other patients in the ward raised complaints about her ordeal, but these fell on deaf ears.

Fearing the nurses’ vindictiveness, she said she asked the Barkleys to stop complaining on her behalf.

As days went by, Ncube’s untreated wound began to stink. She showed The Citizen photos of the wound, with yellow pus visible.

Upon realising that the wound was infected and emitting a bad smell, the 59-year-old was taken to the operating room again, where more of her leg was cut off.

“I expected them to clean it and treat it. I even asked them to stitch me up and close it, but that did not happen.

“They instead gave me heavy medication, and I woke up with the rest of my leg cut off. I didn’t agree to that.”

Still no wound care was administered after that, she said.

According to her, she was then allocated a room alone. In severe pain after the second surgery, she screamed and asked for painkillers, to no avail.

The 59-year-old domestic worker said it was around this time she fell and fainted.

“I almost died. When I came to, I was told that they resuscitated me. My lips had glucose on them,” said Ncube.

‘She should be thankful she’s alive’

The Citizen‘s enquiries to the Gauteng Department of Health went unanswered, despite officials being aware of Ncube’s matter since last year.

Email correspondence between Barkley and the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) deputy director Ntombi Ndukuya shows that no proper investigation was launched, nor did they interview Ncube.

However, a recorded meeting between hospital management, Ncube’s daughter and Barkley laid bare the problems at Charlotte Maxeke hospital as the officials shifted blame.

Dr Ismail Cassimjee, a Charlotte Maxeke hospital surgeon and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, said in the meeting that Ncube was “disorientated and confused” most of the time.

He added that she should be thankful for leaving the hospital alive.

“I can assure you she was medically taken care of. She had multiple super specialists, I saw her every day in those two months.

“We should be thankful she came out alive. She developed acute kidney injury while in hospital,” said Cassimjee.

But doctors at South Rand Hospital, where she was eventually transferred to, conducted blood tests and did not find anything wrong with her kidneys, said Barkley.

“We asked them to check her kidneys and conduct tests, they found that her kidneys were healthy. Charlotte Maxeke staff just lied to us.

“Ncube is part of our family having been with us for many years. What they did to her is evil, more so coming from healthcare staff,” she said.

Cassimjee said allegations that nurses and doctors did not attend to her were “part of her confusion.”

Another official, Lehlohonolo Lehurutsi, referred to as the head of Cassimjee’s unit, went on a rant about the Barkleys speaking to The Citizen, denying complaints against the hospital.

This was despite the family’s repeated attempts to get the department to intervene.

Quick transfer to another hospital

With pressure mounting from the Barkley family, the hospital transferred Ncube to South Rand Hospital in December.

Healthcare workers there were shocked at the untreated and gaping wound and immediately put her on a treatment regime, said Ncube.

“They monitored my blood sugar level and blood pressure, which was never done at Charlotte Maxeke.

“South Rand nursed me back to health. Charlotte Maxeke took my whole leg instead of just one toe.

“My life is a misery now, and I won’t get my leg back. I cannot work anymore, my life is over,” Ncube said, with tears in her eyes.

Without crutches, she uses the wheelchair she got from Charlotte Maxeke during the transfer.

She said nurses told her to return it if  “she has no use for it.”

“They took my other leg, I only have one leg and they told me to return the wheelchair. How am I supposed to move around without the second leg?”

To date, the department hasn’t apologised to Ncube and her family.

NOW READ: Nzimande challenged over alleged discrimination against black local academics at SA universities