“Where were the nurses?”

“They robbed me of my chance to say goodbye,” said Soni Lutchman, grieving over the loss of her husband of 43 years.

Soni blamed the Stanger Hospital high care nursing staff for the indignity suffered by her husband when he collapsed and died in the hospital ablusion, alone, on Wednesday, October 7. Her 67-year-old husband, Haripasad, was only found about half an hour later after she arrived at his bed and discovered that he was missing.

“What does high care mean and where were the nurses? If he had died in bed after I spoke to him, it would have been okay,” said Soni.

High care or high dependency unit (HDU) is where patients are cared for more intensively than in a normal ward. Haripasad had been admitted to the HDU the night before with severe pneumonia after an unsuccessful attempt at seeking treatment at the same hospital on Monday, October 5.

The Lutchmans did not have medical aid and were regular recipients of good care at Stanger Hospital with Haripasad receiving his chronic medication there every month.

“On Monday morning I took my husband to the hospital at 8am because he was very sick and had trouble breathing,” said Soni.

With Haripasad too weak to walk that day, he arrived at triage in a wheelchair where Soni asked for urgent assistance.

Soni said she was shocked when the female doctor on duty said: “I am the doctor and I will decide who I see first. I can see your husband sitting in the wheelchair and he is breathing fine.”

About three hours later, Haripasad was sent to the back of the queue at the medical out-patient division (MOPD) as an unbooked patient. With Haripasad looking worse by the hour, Soni pleaded with the matron for urgent help and she sent them to casualty.

But because Soni and Haripasad had an “unbooked patient” slip, the doctor on duty there refused to help them because he said it was against the rules.

Soni said the doctor at casualty said: “Can’t you read, Aunty? Go to unbooked and wait your turn. We follow rules here.”

Frenzied and not knowing which way to go, Soni and Haripasad turned around and went home at lunch time to seek help from a general practitioner in Tongaat.

“Our doctor in Tongaat said my husband belonged in hospital and gave him an injection to help with his lungs and told him to come back on Thursday,” said Soni.

The doctor instructed Haripasad to sleep sitting up.

By Monday night he became confused from what Soni now knows was oxygen delirium due to a lack of oxygen supply to the brain.

“I was very worried when my husband did not even get up to go to the toilet on Tuesday morning. He kept getting worse and in the afternoon I took him back to Stanger Hospital where he was received at casualty just after 7pm,” said Soni.

Soni sat with Haripasad until 4am on Wednesday and to her he seemed a little better.

He was admitted to HDU and Soni went home, confident that her husband was in good hands.

“When I came back to visit him at 1pm, nobody knew where my husband was. His blanket from home, oxygen mask and drips were lying on his bed but he was nowhere to be found,” said Soni.

Other patients in the ward told her Haripasad had left the ward on his own a long time before.

“Nobody knew where he was and nurses searched everywhere before eventually finding him in the toilet, where he had collapsed,” said Soni.

She said hospital staff rushed around for about another 45 minutes trying to revive Haripasad but it was too late.

“Place yourself in my shoes and have that experience. Where were the nurses? What kind of people do they employ?” asked Soni, fighting back tears.

Soni said she knew her husband was very sick and might not make it but felt that if he had been assisted to the toilet and back, he would have died in bed and she could possibly have had a chance to say goodbye.

Hospital management apologised to Soni last Friday, but have not responded to queries from the Courier.