‘Hospital killed my daughter’

Published Oct 2, 2014

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Pretoria -

“They killed my daughter and all I want are answers on how and why.” These were the words of the distraught mother of 13-year-old Yonela Motsoaneng of Atteridgeville, who died at Kalafong Hospital on Wednesday morning.

Speaking through heavy sobs and tears of pain, Priscilla Motsoaneng said doctors had “butchered” her little girl twice and then taken her away from her.

“She was an angel. We shared everything and she had such great plans for her future,” the distraught mother said.

DA councillor Simon Motsoaneng spoke of the events of two weeks which led to his daughter’s death and said they were still baffled by the sequence.

The parents had rushed the teenager to hospital when the abdominal pains she had been complaining about only got worse on September 15.

“She was admitted, scans done and doctors said they could not find the cause of her pain,” he said.

They told the parents they would operate on her and remove her appendix anyway, which they did and then discharged her the next day.

Yonela spent the next few days recuperating at home, but four days later the excruciating pain was back, and she told her mother she felt something move inside her uterus.

“She told me she was on fire,” Priscilla said on Wednesday, saying that the following Tuesday the screams from her daughter’s bedroom sent her hurrying to her bedside.

“Fluid was oozing in a steady flow from the wound, a dirty smelly fluid that soaked towels we used to stem the flow with.”

The child was taken go hospital the following day, where she was admitted.

“The doctors called on Saturday to ask for permission to operate, which we gave,” said Motsoaneng.

The parents said they were not told what the operation was for and discovered on Monday that Yonela had been cut open from the belly button, the wound running horizontally towards the site of the first operation.

“She was still in a lot of pain but she could still talk,” the mother said. She was her normal chatty self over the phone on Tuesday when her mother was on her way to the hospital.

“But when I got there, nurses and doctors were around her bed, and she was vomiting a mixture of brown stuff and blood.”

Not much of an explanation was given to the parents, and when they left her just before midnight she had calmed down and was sleeping.

The dreaded and unexpected call came as the couple slept in the early hours of Wednesday morning: “They said she had died and we immediately went there.”

They were turned away because the doctor was not there, but they were called back to the hospital as they were informing Yonela’s school principal about her death.

“They said the doctor was available to discuss the situation and explain exactly what happened,” said Motsoaneng.

They rushed back, only to be told to wait while the doctor did his rounds. They waited next to the bed on which their daughter lay dead: “Her mother broke down and was severely traumatised, so much so that I had to threaten them before they called the doctor.”

When the doctor came, he told them they had been unable to determine the cause of death. “They failed to tell us why they had removed her appendix and what the second procedure had been for.”

Gauteng Health Department spokesman Prince Hmnca said on Wednesday that the incident was being investigated.

On Wednesday, the parents and other relatives spoke of the child, describing her as a smart girl who loved her school work.

“Her head was always buried in her books, and she always passed with flying colours,” her aunt Melita Mpila said.

She had always passed well, and so deserved only the best, her father said.

He had stood in a queue for hours in the early hours of the morning, along with other parents trying to get their children into Pretoria Girls High School.

“She was a star,” the father said.

Yonela’s mother spoke of the Grade 7 pupil’s dreams of becoming a doctor, and said: “She promised to take care of me. She would make everything just right when she started working.”

The teenager also loved technology and helped everyone with their gadgets.

She was a role model for her 8-year-old sister. “They got along so well,” the mother said.

She was also a big Nicki Minaj fan, and even though she knew she couldn’t attend the recently cancelled concert the American singer would have featured in, she was heart-broken when she heard it wouldn’t happen.

A post-mortem is due to be conducted on Thursday morning, with the family still waiting for results… and answers.

Pretoria News

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