Mother’s hospital nightmare

SPIDER, poisonous, two-month old baby bitten, hospital, emergency surgery… all the stuff of a mom’s worst nightmare.

Only it didn’t stop there for Amanda van Heerden after she rushed her daughter, Juandra, to GJ Crookes Hospital on  November 14.

Her doctor told her the poison from a suspected spider bite needed to be cut out and advised her to get to the hospital fast for surgery.

At first, Amanda relaxed somewhat when she walked into the recently re-vamped hospital and fully expected the service to be on par. However, her blood pressure and anxiety levels were soon spiking again when her baby was admitted to the children’s ward.

The hospital has since disputed Amanda’s story. Both sides are reported below.

“The emergency department was great, but the children’s ward was pathetic,” said Amanda.

She said the staff gave her daughter Panado in a cup that was smeared with blood.

“I was horrified and when I complained the staff just said it was only an honest mistake. Who knows what sicknesses were in that blood,” said Amanda.

“Then they refused to allow my daughter to drink from her own bottles. She had to drink from another cup provided and no formula was allowed, only cow’s milk.

“The staff also did not know how to insert a drip-line and even shaved her hair. My daughter was screaming  from the pain.

“There were also sick-looking cats running around in the children’s ward, in between the babies.

“That was the last straw so we took Juandra to King Edward Hospital in Durban before they killed her.”

At King Edward, tests revealed that is was not a spider bite after all, but was actually a sweat gland which had become infected.

This then spread to other glands. Doctors operated, removed the infection and baby Juandra is now doing well.

Thabiso Maxwell Mbanjwa, Public Relations Officer of GJ Crookes Hospital, confirmed that Juandra was admitted to their children’s ward.

“The allegations which Amanda van Heerden have made are unfounded.

“She said that Panado was given to the child in a blood-stained cup. The patient was given Panado in a medicine cup. The patient drunk the Panado and the cup was kept in the patient’s crib. Next to the cup was the patient’s blood-stained, short line drip which the patient had removed.

“Therefore it is logical to assume that the blood noticed on the outside of the cup came from the patient’s own drip.

“Each patient gets a new cup which is sterilised in the Central Sterilising Department of the hospital. All patients who are on formula are provided with formula feeds from the hospital because of sterility.

“These feeds are prepared in the hospital milk kitchen, therefore patients’ relatives are not allowed to use their own feeds.

“We feed hundreds of patients with these feeds, but we have not received a complaint of this nature. Most formula feeds are manufactured from cow’s milk. We do not feed patients using fresh cow’s milk.

“We feed all patients who are on formula feeds with sterilised cups. Even new-born babies are fed with cups. We discourage bottle feeding and promote cup feeding when a child is admitted to our hospital. However, we encourage breast feeding for all children as we are a baby-friendly hospital.

“When veins are not easily visible on the limbs, we insert drips on the scalp, using a scalp vein which is a very common procedure in paediatrics practice. Consent was obtained from the mother for any surgical procedure, which included shaving of the scalp.

“We are not aware of any sick cats in the hospital. Rarely do we have cats straying into the ward, but we take care to prevent them from coming in and to chase them away.”