Mom claims radiation exposure
St Augustine’s Hospital denies wrongdoing
A DURBAN mother is nursing burns to her hands, neck, and face after allegedly being exposed to a cleaning machine at the St Augustine’s Hospital that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to kill germs and bacteria.
The former teacher, 43, who declined to be named, has since been discharged.
The hospital’s management and the manufacturer of the machine have refuted her allegations.
The mother of one was admitted to the hospital on September 23 to undergo an angiogram. Despite the tests coming back clear, the doctors advised she should stay the night for observation.
“I shared a room with another patient. The toilet had a blockage, and the water overflowed making the bath unusable. We were told to use the bathroom in a private room across from us, and while showering the following morning, I heard a noise.”
She said construction was under way at the hospital and she was, therefore, not alarmed and continued her shower.
“When I was done, I opened the bathroom door and saw a noisy machine with a big bright light in the room.”
The patient returned to the bathroom to gather her toiletries, and while walking out the private room, she saw a signboard blocking the doorway.
It read “caution pulsing UV do not enter”.
“I was horrified. Two men and a woman, who were talking in the hallway, were shocked when they saw me run out of the room. The woman said the men told her no one was supposed to be in the room.”
The patient said the man allegedly responsible for operating the machine, begged her not to report him as he would lose his job.
While back in her shared room, she said she felt nauseous and light-headed.
“The skin on my hands, neck, and face began to burn, and the colouring went from red to black. At the trauma unit, burn shields were placed on my arms, and I was given medication for the pain and treated for an allergic reaction.”
By midday, she felt better and was discharged.
She took a nap at home, and by 7pm, the burning flared up.
The patient was taken to the trauma unit where she was treated and kept for observation.
She said she was taken aback when the hospital allegedly informed her medical aid that she was treated for abdominal pain and an allergy.
“I believe I was exposed to radiation from that machine, and they were treating me for something else.”
She said she later found out the patient she shared the room with had a severe bug and the machine was used to ensure the room was disinfected.
She accused the hospital and staff of being negligent.
Heinrich Venter, the hospital’s general manager, confirmed the woman was in a bathroom of an unoccupied room when an operator entered to disinfect it using the germ-zapping Xenex robot.
“Not expecting any person to be in the en-suite bathroom of an unoccupied ward, the Zapper Operator, who works for a service provider to the hospital, unfortunately, did not check the bathroom before starting the robot’s disinfection cycle.”
Venter said the manufacturers in the US and their South African distributors assured them of the safety of the robots and the fact that the UV light ceases to operate when motion is detected in a room.
He said when the patient alerted them to her experience, she was checked in the emergency department and was “pro-actively treated” to minimise any chance of potential damage to her skin.
“While we have every assurance of the safety of the robot to be absolutely safe, we enlisted the expertise of a physician, a dermatologist, an ophthalmologist, and an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist as well as a plastic surgeon to examine and assess (the patient) for any possible effects.”
Venter said she was found to have sustained no physical harm.
“(She) appears to have a sensitive skin and may have experienced a reaction either to the wipe used to remove her make-up or the products that were applied in the emergency department.”
Melinda Hart, the director of media relations at Xenex Disinfection Services Inc, said the machine used a xenon lamp to create a pulsed (as opposed to continuous) UV light to destroy bacteria, viruses and fungal spores and that data indicated that a short duration of exposure would not cause skin damage.