‘WAITING TO DIE’
Grieving family demands answers from hospital, claiming woman was not given fighting chance
For 24 hours, a Nelson Mandela Bay woman lay dying on a stretcher in Dora Nginza Hospital as doctors allegedly overlooked her.
It was allegedly not until her sister kicked up a fuss and was escorted out of the facility that anyone took note of 60-yearold Nomonde Gula, who had been struggling to breathe. But it was already too late. Her grieving family is now demanding answers from Dora Nginza Hospital staff and wants accountability to be taken for the woman’s death.
Gula was admitted to Dora Nginza at about 11am on Saturday.
The family said the hospital had not been particularly busy that day.
However, doctors allegedly continuously skipped over Gula’s bedside and failed to examine her for up to 24 hours.
Speaking from her Motherwell home yesterday, Thandeka Meintjies, 57, lashed out at the hospital staff, accusing the doctors, in particular, of failing to give her sister a fighting chance.
She said had Gula been attended to, tested and treated, the outcome may have been vastly different.
“I’m not saying she would be alive today but, then again, maybe she would be,” Meintjies said.
“If doctors had gone to her, run tests, or done something to find out what was wrong, we would probably be having a very different conversation now.
“As a family, even if she had died after being seen to, we would have been satisfied because at least then there would have been a level of care.
“But the doctors [allegedly] did not even try.
“That’s why I’m so angry.” She said it was only when Gula started convulsing that someone inquired what was wrong with her.
Recounting the events of the weekend, Meintjies said she had received a phone call on Saturday morning to inform her that Gula’s health had regressed and she needed to be admitted to hospital.
Gula lived in Zinyoka. “My cousins called for an ambulance three times but it did not arrive.
“I had to drive from Motherwell and take her to Dora.
“We arrived just after 11am and waited.
“It wasn’t overly busy or full, so we were hopeful she’d be attended to and treated,” Meintjies said.
She said they opened a folder for Gula — and then the waiting game began.
“We sat there until the sun went down without a single doctor coming to check on her.
“I left the hospital after 10pm to rush home to close the windows and curtains.
“I called the family at the hospital to check up on my sister and they said she had still not been seen by a doctor despite how critical she was.
“When I went back at 10am the next day, they had her on an oxygen mask,” Meintjies said.
According to Meintjies, Gula suffered from dementia and hypertension, and had suffered a mild stroke earlier in the year, causing her to lose function on the left side of her body.
On Saturday, she refused to eat and was unresponsive, prompting her relatives to seek medical attention.
Meintjies said when she arrived back at the hospital on Sunday, the relatives of some patients had been told to wait outside.
She said from the window
she could see Gula’s breathing seemed erratic.
“I went inside for a closer look at her.
“When I saw her I approached one of the doctors and asked how things worked at the hospital, because we’d arrived the previous day and they hadn’t attended to our person.
“My tone was firm and I probably sounded agitated.
“I told the doctor they could see the state my sister was in, yet they were deliberately ignoring her and the other patients.
“Some of the people we spoke to there said they had been waiting for three days without any assistance, yet there were doctors going in and out of the casualty ward.
“Is it because we don’t have money to put our relatives on medical aid that they’re being treated in such an inhumane manner?”
Meintjies said a similar incident had occurred in 2010 when another sister of hers died at Dora.
“I was adamant it wouldn’t happen this time around.
“The doctor then gave an instruction that I be removed by security.
“It was hardly 15 minutes after I’d been escorted outside when I heard my cousin wailing.
“My sister had started gasping for air.
“Doctors were on top of her doing chest compressions, and that was the last of it.
“I told them her death is on their hands.
“She died under their watch while they sat and did nothing. I am so bitter,” Meintjies said.
Describing Gula as a bubbly person, Meintjies said her sister had had a kind heart, made all those around her feel comfortable, and had filled every room with laughter and joy.
“She turned 60 in September 2023.
“She had two children but her son died in December 2021, and I don’t think she ever accepted it because health-wise she had been on a downward trajectory.”
Meintjies said Dora Nginza needed to account for what had happened to her sister.
An insider at Dora Nginza, who declined to be named, said the facility had a triage system in place to assess the urgency of a patient.
The insider said the hospital was dealing with a number of similar complaints from other families and that their claims were under investigation.
“Staff shortages culminate in longer waiting times and, unfortunately, sometimes things that could have been avoided happen because there’s not enough manpower.”
Health spokesperson Mkhululi Ndamase sent his condolences to the family, adding that the identification of the patient did not allow the department to comment on this particular case because of the confidentiality involved.
“We can, however, comment generally on what is supposed to happen when people get to hospitals.
“We always encourage people who are unhappy with the service they get to report to the CEO or senior official on duty so that whatever issues there might be there will be addressed.
“We can confirm that it is standard practice that when people get to our facilities, triage is done so as to assess the seriousness of their health issue.
“This allows our clinicians to prioritise more serious or life-threatening cases.
“It is difficult to determine the acceptable waiting time before someone is seen by a doctor.
“This is because this is determined by how busy the hospital is on that particular day or time.
“However, we always strive to ensure that patients are seen as speedily as possible,” Ndamase said.
He said the department of health was committed to filling vacancies within the “available envelope”.
“As such, there is a block advert currently out.
“Some of the vacancies that will be filled are at Dora Nginza Hospital.
“We urge people, including the media, to allow the recruitment processes to unfold.”