Psychiatric patient says he was beaten by medical staff

Police are investigating a case of assault with intention to cause grievous bodily harm at the Madadeni Hospital Psychiatric Unit after a patient was beaten so badly, his eyes were swollen shut.

Khaba Mkhize (26) claims male nurses in the unit drugged him, beat him and confined him to a pitch dark solitary cell, and says he is now terrified of going back to the hospital, even to collect his chronic medication.

“About three weeks ago, I had a meal with the other patients and then went to the bathroom to wash up. In the bathroom, one of the other patients said that he was going to beat me, so I screamed for help,” began Mr Mkhize. “When I screamed, the nurses rushed in. One grabbed me in a headlock, and the other restrained my arms. I collapsed.”

“When I came to, I was injected twice and thrown in a cell, known to the other patients as the ‘dark room’. The next time I was conscious, someone was beating my face. Later I realised that my money, and a drawing given to me by one of the other patients, had been stolen from my pocket, and some of my toiletries had been stolen from my cupboard.”

Mr Mkhize said that this was the third time in the five weeks he had been admitted that he had landed in the ‘dark room’.

“The first time, my mother had sent some extra food for me, which I kept in the kitchen. When I went to the kitchen to eat the food, the nurse accused me of stealing food from the kitchen and I ended up in the cell. Maybe they just wanted the food my mother sent for themselves. On the second occasion, it was a very cold night so I asked the nurse for an extra blanket. I was then thrown in the ‘dark room’ for bugging the nurse,” he explained.

“In the Psychiatric Unit, patients are taken for granted. They are not treated well and every time they try to speak up or explain their point of view, they are threatened with the dark room. Because they are psychiatric patients, nobody bothers to listen to them or takes them seriously,” Mr Mkhize concluded.

When contacted about the conditions in the psychiatric unit and the assault on Mr Mkhize, Madadeni Hospital spokesperson, Gcina Dube, would neither comment nor would he look into the matter.

“Our e-mails are down and I can only receive or address any questions from the media in writing in an e-mail or I may be misquoted. I will only be able to look into the matter when the e-mails are working again,” he said.

Even though a second e-mail was delivered to Mr Dube’s private e-mail address, and other alternative means of communication were suggested, Mr Dube still stubbornly refused to respond.

“I will only respond to e-mails, and only e-mails that are received on my work e-mail address once it is working again. I will not respond on my private address. My private e-mail address is my private e-mail address and this is work,” he said.

After Mr Dube’s reply was discussed with the District Department of Health, he asked another member of staff to direct the media to the Provincial Department of Health for an answer. Jeanette Dalton, who spoke on behalf of the Provincial Department of Health, said she would ask the medical review board to urgently investigate allegations made by Mr Mkhize, and will inform the media of its findings.

“While we take this serious, we also can’t take it for granted that Mr Mkhize is relating the true story. After the investigation, we will have a better idea of what happened,” said Mrs Dalton.