Zille comes to rescue
Victim turned away at hospital had lost hope of treatment
FORMER DA leader Helen Zille has come to the rescue of a domestic violence victim in Mthatha struggling to receive proper healthcare.
Wendy Mjijima, 25, was assaulted allegedly by her boyfriend, an attack which left her with a broken jaw.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Mjijima said the incident happened on Saturday evening, after which she was rushed to a nearby clinic in Ngqeleni.
“I spent most of Sunday at the clinic but was transferred to Nelson Mandela Central Hospital on Monday morning, where they just gave me pain tablets and told me that the theatre was full for the day.
“They would call me on Tuesday to get me on the waiting list,” Mjijima said.
She said her brother posted about this lack of treatment on Twitter, which caught the attention of Zille.
“The next thing the CEO called and told me go to the hospital on Wednesday as they had made a plan to attend to my injuries,” she said.
Mjijima said the injuries were so bad she was constantly in pain and that the medication she was taking did not help.
“My whole face and head hurt, because although my right jaw was broken the other side was also slightly fractured, so I couldn’t sleep. I could only drink liquids like yoghurt, Mageu and milk,” Mjijima said.
She would not go into detail about the actual attack, but said she had since pressed charges and a restraining order against her boyfriend.
She said she would still be nursing her wounds at home had it not been for the intervention of Eastern Cape DA Shadow MEC for Health Celeste Barker, who helped facilitate her treatment.
“I was completely clueless and felt helpless after the hospital turned me away. I had no other option but to wait, Celeste not only fast-tracked the process but she also gave me support and I felt less like a victim,” she said
Provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said: “This week I was phoned by Barker telling me about a woman, who was assaulted by her boyfriend.
“I phoned Nelson Mandela Hospital’s monitoring and evaluation manager and she assigned the hospital’s quality assurance manager to handle the case.”
The department also put Mjijima in contact with the head of the family violence unit in Mthatha.
Kupelo said Nelson Mandela was a referral hospital and there were patients already lined up for theatre so Mjijima would have had to wait. Sometimes it happened that patients had to go on a waiting list, he said.
Mjijima said she felt empowered by Barker’s concern and efforts.
“We had long conversations about the steps that I could take. I appreciate her efforts and I hope more of the same support could be shown to other women, who find themselves in this situation because I know there many other cases like this,” Mjijima said.
Daily Dispatch was unable to reach Zille but Barker said it was unacceptable that this incident happened while the country was observing 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children.
What was even more unacceptable was the hospital’s tardiness in attending to the victim. —