Nurse watches as wife cleans wounds

POLOKWANE – What was meant to be a routine interview with a patient and his wife at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital, turned into an hour filled with horror.

Marie Muller’s husband, Steven, was injured in a motorcycle accident recently and he lay in the provincial hospital with serious injuries. Marie said I had to see the poor service for myself, but nothing could have prepared me for the suffering I witnessed.

I entered Ward O, where Steven’s room was and immediately noticed that there were no nurses or other medical personnel in sight.

Then I heard the blood curdling screams of pain.

Steven was the source of these screams. Marie had to replace his wound dressing and bandages because, she said, this was the only way his wounds would be cleaned as the nursing staff never cleaned the wounds. Steven shoved most of his duvet into his mouth and prayed, “please God make it stop”, while Marie cleaned his wounds.

Marie said she had to bring over-the-counter pain medication, that is not very strong, from home to give to Steven, because the hospital personnel did not give him any pain medication.

While Marie changed Steven’s bandages, a nurse stood in the room and watched her at work.

Another patient in the room asked the nurse for a bedpan and she left the room. I never saw her again and an hour later the patient still did not have a bedpan.

I made my way down the hallway in search of the nurse with the bedpan, but after a while of searching all the rooms, I had to concede that there were no nurses available on the ward.

I met a patient in the hallway who said people go to this hospital to die.

“When there is an emergency and we ask for help, we have to wait for at least 30 minutes before somebody will show up. That is if the nurses remember,” he said.

I returned to Steven’s room and Marie said she was only allowed to visit him during visiting hours and that made it difficult for her to take care of him.

She said she had an arrangement with the nurses that she would help her husband in the mornings, but she was turned away by security guards who said she had to come back during visiting hours.

Next to Steven’s bed was a water bottle that he used as a toilet. With his injuries he could not move around on his own and his only assistance came when his wife visited him.

Steven’s right leg was badly injured in the accident and his kneecap destroyed.

He said the only medical attention he received was from his wife who, with the help of information from the internet and advice from a pharmacist, tried her best to help him.

Steve also had to go without food for several days, because medical personnel kept on saying that he would be operated on the following day. He still had not received any operation.

He said the food was not great anyway and that they only received dry bread and porridge in the mornings with nothing for the rest of the day.

Health spokesperson, Adéle van der Linde, was shocked to hear about the dire circumstances that Steven had to endure. “We will follow up on the report and investigate,” she said.

Van der Linde said the department realised the seriousness of the situation and she would refer the matter directly to the MEC for health, Ishmael Kgetjepe.

• Earlier in the week, Review reported on a hospital personnel strike that happened last week. At this strike, the personnel demanded the removal of hospital CEO, Tsietsi Seate.