‘All I want is to bury my son’

The family of deceased Komga man Anele Mxhosana do not understand why the Komga hospital is refusing to discharge his body, two weeks after his death.

The 26-year-old’s body has been kept because his Covid-19 tests results are still outstanding, 25 days after he took the tests.

However, the department of health says there is nothing untoward about the wait as there was a backlog of Covid-19 tests results from its Port Elizabeth laboratory, the only one for the province.

Health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said patients dying while waiting for results was not isolated to the Mxhosana family but widespread across the province. He said he knew of several cases, but that the families in question had resorted to burying their loved ones.

Anele died at Komga hospital on May 25, two weeks after he was admitted, and his mother, Notiti Mxhosana, said he was supposed to have been buried this past weekend.

Anele went to the hospital for an unrelated health complication, which was later confirmed as TB.

However, given his “highrisk” status, he was also tested for Covid-19.

Because Anele was admitted at Komga hospital, which the health department had officially used as a quarantine site for Covid-19 patients only, Notiti and her family could not visit him.

When they did, they would relay messages to him through the hospital security guard.

According to Notiti, if the family persisted in burying Anele, they would not be able to see his body during the funeral.

“There is no progress. We went to the hospital’s matron but she said she knows nothing and the doctor would know.

“I am very hurt because I don ’ t know what else to do. It is very sad,” she said. “What is happening is painful to endure as a mourning parent.”

The area’s ward councillor, Weaver Sinqana, said he had advised the family to wait a little longer.

Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo told the Dispatch that a patient who died as a Person Under Investigation, and where the results were still awaited, should be buried as a Covid-19 positive deceased.

He said this would be explained to the family on Monday.

“When you are advised to bury the patient as a Covid-19 [deceased], do that because there is a clinical benefit for that.

“We are not going to be negligent as a department and keep quiet when there is a suspicion of Covid-19.

“The entire environment of the area can be contaminated; the groundwater can be contaminated.

“Let’s not stigmatise Covid-19 — on the death certificate it will say natural death.”

Kupelo said law enforcement agencies could be involved to monitor the service when Anele was buried to ensure lockdown regulations were adhered to.