Letters: Beyond the call of duty

This a sad story with lovely positive people in it….I would like to give Stanger Hospital a big shout out, especially the doctors and nurses in High Care on the Women’s Surgical Ward.
This sad story starts with my mom getting very ill in a hospital up near Pietermartizburg in early 2016. Suffering from dementia as well as an ailment called cellulitis, they operated on her and sorted the problem out. A day before she was due back at her old age home, the doctor on duty left her cot’s side down and she fell out and broke her hip. Taking full responsibility, the hospital did a full hip replacement but the stress to my mom’s mental health was very bad and she lost weight and was sent home to her old age home. Unfortunately they dislocated her hip and my poor painfully thin mommy had to go back into theatre again to have her hip put back into place.
All the while I was traveling to Pietermartizburg every second day to visit her and it just became too much traveling and upsetting watching my mom in pain and lonely as I could only be there for the visiting hours. We approached the hospital and asked if mom could be moved closer to me as I am in Ballito. They organised it immediately and mom was moved. I had heard bad stories and read one years ago in this paper so I was dubious about this but prayed and put it all in God’s hands.
Well, mom passed away quietly on May 11 in her home of nine months at Stanger Hospital. When she got to Stanger she had bed sores the size of the palm of your hands on her back and both her hips where out of joint due to her weight loss. The doctors said they could not operate for fear of losing mom in theatre, but they would do all they could for her and they did just that.
The doctors and nursing staff where always kind, sweet, helpful and never let my mom feel like she was in hospital. They fed her and kept her comfortable, laughed and joked with her. They often said mom was family and she was loved and respected right to the end.
On Thursday the 11th they seemed to be hovering around me during the visiting hour which turned into a much longer visit and when eventually I left, mom passed an hour later. They got the nurse who was with my mom right from day one and my go-to hero during those months to break the news to me. She was wonderful and I am so grateful to her for the compassion and caring she showed my mom and I…
I went back on the next Monday and we all shed tears together and said our goodbyes, it was really very heart warming. The doctors all said my mom was a strong person but such a lady and never complained and was in a lot of pain at times which she bore very bravely.
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Stanger Hosptial and staff for all they did for my mom and our family by caring for her so well.
God’s richest blessing to them.
I know my mom thanks them.
JANETTE WILLIS
Ballito