Cape Town - She went to the Mitchells Plain Day Hospital to have her wound from her C-section cleaned after giving birth at Groote Schuur Hospital, but instead her sutures were removed and her intestines hung out.
Nandipha Ndlazi, 35, from Heinz Park, Philippi, said she could not believe the incompetence of the nurses at the hospital, which nearly caused her death.
“I told them the doctor didn’t say the sutures must be removed but only for the wound to be cleaned, but they didn’t listen,” she said.
“I am not educated with this situation, so I let the professionals do their job. They took the sutures out and placed a bandage on the fresh wound as they claimed it was healed.”
After leaving the hospital, she walked to the taxis, but felt a warm feeling from her lower parts and went to the nearest toilet to check the wound.
To her horror her wound had opened and her organs were hanging out of the bandage. She called on the cleaners and security for help.
Luckily there were law enforcement officers around and an ambulance was called, but it arrived two hours later.
She was rushed to Groote Schuur Hospital, went through surgery and received 15 sutures.
“All I want is for the Mitchells Plain Day Hospital to take responsibility for what happened to me. I want to sue them for negligence because they placed me in such a traumatic and horrific situation. I should have been home with my newborn baby, enjoying motherhood,” she said.
Monique Johnstone, communication officer for the Western Cape Department of Health, said the incident was unfortunate.
“The client’s stitches were removed on day eight post-surgery, well within the standard suture removal time frame. Removal of sutures is generally not delayed unnecessarily in order to prevent introducing infection into the wound."
“Before the sutures were removed, the client’s wound was assessed and found to have healed sufficiently with no sign of sepsis and no gaping skin.”