Pretoria - “Devils in white” is how the nurses at Steve Biko Academic Hospital have been described by relatives of Juanita Noah and Jan Drywer, who died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
The reference was drawn from a comment by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi who said patients deserved better than “devils in white”, referring to nurses in public health care facilities.
The families, who brought their cases to the attention of the Pretoria News after reports of others who had died at the hospital, say they do not know why their loved ones died as “they had no complications”.
“The doctor told us (Juanita) would be coming home within a day or two, and even he was shocked when he learnt she had died,” Dawid Noah said on the death of his cousin, aged 38, on August 24, 2014.
He said she had been in hospital for two days and had been sitting up in bed, chatting a few hours before the hospital called to say she had died. “She had been up and down, doing everything for herself up to that day when they gave her a (oxygen) mask to help her breathe.”
He claimed that she had wanted to go to the toilet but nurses said she could not leave her bed.
Family members asked a member of staff for help, and it turned out this person was a doctor who told the nurses to bring the bed pan.
“When the doctor left all hell broke loose,” said Noah. “They asked us how we dare approach a doctor, and from then on their attitude changed and they became hostile.”
Three hours later at about midnight, they received a call, saying Juanita had died. “The shock of it still resonates today, not only because there was no medical reason for death, but also because no one told us what happened.”
In seeking answers, the family have spoken to hospital chief executive Dr Ernest Kenoshi and approached the office of (Gauteng Health) MEC Qedani Mahlangu.
“But none of them has said anything, other than to mention staff shortages,” said Noah.
Drywer’s family say he went into the hospital to have his small toe amputated as it was gangrenous.
Oupa Drywer said his father, 72, was well when he walked into the hospital and was taken to theatre three days later. “During my last visit he had serious abdominal pain, something none of us could understand. Then they called to say he had died.”
Both families say they have not found closure, and their pain is exacerbated by the lack of answers.
Health spokesman Steve Mabona had not responded to queries by the time of going to print.
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Pretoria News