Pretoria - The family of an Eersterust mother who was left with a gaping, rotting bedsore on her backside are pleading with the Steve Biko Academic Hospital to provide answers as to what happened to their mother.
According to Violene Anderson, the daughter of 66-year-old Charmaine Slimmert from Eersterust, their mother was first admitted to the hospital on January 16 after suffering a stroke.
Anderson said her mother stayed in the hospital for three weeks, with doctors’ only explanation being that she had suffered a rare spinal stroke and they still needed to run a battery of tests to determine what could have happened.
On February 17, a month later, the hospital called the family to say that Slimmert was being discharged and they would have to get instructions from wound care on how to treat her bedsores.
“When I asked what had happened as we didn’t bring her with any sores, all they told me was that she had developed small bedsores not more than 5cm.”
“But when they opened up the dressing to show me one of the bedsores, I almost fainted because it was a huge hole that covered her entire butt, it was rotten and smelt horrible.”
She said she tried to contact family and friends involved in the health sector about how to take care of the wound as her mother developed diarrhoea, and wouldn’t eat or drink anything from the day they collected her from the hospital.
Anderson said all that the hospital gave her mother to manage the pain was tramadol and panado ‒ pain medication.
“They showed me how to clean it and gave me sponges to plug in the holes on my mother’s backside. Even though I have no experience with this, I just opted to try because this is my mother after all.”
“I haven’t been able to understand how anyone can be sent home in such a horrible condition. Everyone is distraught and my little brother is in a state and traumatised by having to help me look after the wound which is oozing and smelling so badly.”
The family said they decided to take their mother back to the hospital to have her readmitted on Monday as she developed a fever and wasn’t getting any better.
However, they were still not getting any indication of her mother’s progress, with her complaining that her drip had fallen out and it was yet to be put back in by anyone at the hospital.
Anderson said following up with the hospital on her mother’s condition had also proved difficult as no one was willing to give them any answers. All they indicated was that they were struggling to find a vein and were rather waiting for a doctor to attend to her mother.
Hospital spokesperson Lovey Mogapi said at the weekend that the hospital was still investigating the matter.
Pretoria News