Witbank Hospital is fast becoming known as the “hospital of death”.

These past few weeks social media was flooded with horror stories and photos showing the terrible state the hospital is in.

But there is one story that grabs your attention and when you read it, you cannot but silently wipe a tear.

A 22-year-old mother died and her family is also knocking on the hospital’s door demanding answers because they feel her death could have been prevented.

Marisca van der Merwe’s daughter, Leanke, is only three months old.

She will only have photos, newspaper articles and links on websites to put the puzzles together of her mom’s death.

Van der Merwe’s husband, Terence’s (27) voice broke when he said: “My sunshine is gone. All the sunshine is packed in a tiny little three-month-old baby …”

Van der Merwe’s aunt, Ms Bernice Fourie is standing steadfast and insists on answers from the Department of Health.

This thing at General Hospital has been going on. As Witbank people we don’t know anymore. People are losing loved ones everytime.
The hospital needs to either shut down or change everyone that works there and get people who are actually passionate about the job #Checkpoint

— Tracy 👑🌸 (@TshiamoTracy18) March 16, 2021

Fourie said Van der Merwe gave birth in December in Bethal provincial hospital. She had to opt for a caesarean after 36 hours in labour.

After the little one’s birth, the wound got infected and Van der Merwe received antibiotics and was told to clean her wound with salt water.

“Middle February she experienced severe nausea and complained of pain in her belly. She ended up with flu-like symptoms and was given flu meds. She just got sicker and sicker and was taken to Evander Hospital. There she was told there are patients sicker than her and was told to go to the clinic the following Monday where she would be referred back to the hospital if necessary.”

Van der Merwe was taken to a private doctor and this time she was told she suffers from depression and was described anti-depressants.

Fourie picked up the lines and said Van der Merwe phoned her and said she struggles to breathe. Fourie’s son, Jeandré, raced to Secunda on March 5 and picked Van der Merwe up.

“I took Marisca to Witbank Hospital; her file was number 36. By 21:00 she could not sit anymore and nausea overwhelmed her. There were no unoccupied beds, people were lying on the floor and there was blood and urine on the floors. I can’t begin to tell you what we experienced,” Fourie said.

Without being seen by a doctor Fourie took Van der Merwe home.

On Monday, March 6 she took her niece to a private doctor who according to Fourie treated Van der Merwe with so much empathy.

But things took a turn for the worse later that week.

“I took Marisca back to Witbank Hospital. She was put on a drip and given an injection for pain. They took about eight blood samples and ignored the results of the blood samples done by the private doctor. That they just shoved in Marisca’s file. A doctor told us the x-rays show that her heart was enlarged, she has fluid in her lungs and her kidneys were failing. He also said he can’t put her on a dialysis machine because all the blood tests were not received yet.”

Fourie said just after 02:00 on Friday morning they were told to go home.

“We just got home when we received a phone call to come back to the hospital. I ran to the emergency unit where I found Marisca naked on a bed. Her underwear was shoved inside a pillowcase.”

Fourie broke down and said she cannot imagine what trauma her niece had gone through before she died.

“We want answers. We will not stop until we get justice for Marisca,” Fourie ended in tears. 

Fourie started a group ‘Geregtigheid vir Marisca 22 en ander geliefdes’ and invited people to share their stories about the provincial stories on the group.

The Van der Merwe couple celebrated their first anniversary in January.

She was cremated on Monday, March 27.

The Freedom Front Plus is urging the MEC for Health in Mpumalanga, Ms Sasekani Manzini to take responsibility for Van der Merwe’s death.

They said the health system in Mpumalanga is terminally ill.

#WitbankHospital a 34 year old patient was shot dead last night at Witbank Hospital. It's believed an assailant walked in the ward, a confrontation ensued. The man was shot 4 times killing him #SABCNews

— Tumelo Machogo 🇿🇦® (@IamTumelo) November 17, 2019

WITBANK NEWS reached out to the Department of Health again, but they still have not responded to Van der Merwe’s death or any of the previous queries send to them by the newspaper.

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