Confusion reigns over epilepsy patient’s nightmarish ordeal

Was it all just a horrible mixup?

Answers by the department of health about how a New Brighton woman ended up in hospital after a routine visit to a clinic have caused even more confusion.

For almost four weeks, Thotyelwa Tekutu, a 35-year-old hawker, has been at Dora Nginza Hospital, with her vision severely impaired.

She has sores on her body, is bleeding from her eyes and has almost total vision loss.

The Herald reported on her condition on Monday, with Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo saying an investigation would be carried out.

Then, in a written response on Tuesday, Kupelo said Tekutu’s abscesses resulted from an unforeseen reaction from a contraceptive injection.

He said Tekutu had suffered a similar situation last year, after receiving a contraceptive injection, and was referred to Livingstone Hospital to drain an abscess. Tekutu, however, vehemently denied receiving a contraceptive injection, insisting she was not on birth control.

She also denied ever having visited Livingstone Hospital.

The Herald approached Kupelo in an attempt to obtain clarity on her condition and the treatment she received, but he declined to respond further to questions.

“It is what it is. I don’t know how you want me to change this. That is our comment on the complaint,” he said.

Tekutu, who suffers from epilepsy, had told The Herald that she visited the Tshangana Clinic in New Brighton on February 8 for a regular checkup after her doctor booked her in for blood tests.

However, she said she was given an antibiotic called Bactrim, which was administrated by injection.

Bactrim is a prescription medicine used to treat ear infections, urinary tract infections, bronchitis, traveller’s diarrhoea, shigellosis and certain types of pneumonia.

Within hours of returning home, Tekutu said, she started to feel weak.

She was admitted to Dora Nginza on February 12, where she endured nearly three weeks of being blind, with abscesses inside her mouth, on her legs and palms, and pus oozing from her eyes.

In his written response, Kupelo said: “[The patient] got family planning last year and developed [an] abscess.

“She was referred to Livingstone for abscess drainage ...

“The clinic followed up on her and even did home visits on a day she did not come for dressing ... The wound has since healed.

“The site of the injection is correct (upper left quadrant of the gluteus maximus muscle/buttocks).

“If it was incorrect it would have paralysed her.

“[She was] seen by [the] facility doctor as part of monitoring the adverse event [with the latest visits being] on February 8 and February 22.

“The patient was coming to the clinic for wound care every second day. The abscess was an unforeseen body reaction or adverse reaction.

“The patient, according to the record of the clinic ... got family planning (Petogen) for the first time in the clinic ...

“The bleeding [in] the picture [of Tekutu which was published by The Herald] was not a direct effect of the injection but rather resulted from the body abscess draining.”

Kupelo failed to respond to a question on why, according to Tekutu, she had been given a Bactrim injection in the first place.

On Tuesday, Tekutu said: “I am not on a contraceptive.

“I only went to the clinic for the blood tests.

“I did not even know why I had to get an injection.”

Tekutu said she never had an abscess last year.

“I have never been to Livingstone Hospital and there were no home visits to treat such an ailment.”

Tekutu, who appears to be making a recovery, said partial sight had been restored to her right eye.