Pic credit: google maps- Shakira Cassim
Clare Estate resident, Nisha Jacobs, says she is not pleased about the treatment she and her sick, deaf and dumb cousin received at the King Dinuzulu Hospital (previously known as King George Hospital) on Monday, 26 April.
Jacobs alleged that the staff informed her that her cousin was displaying Covid-19 symptoms and was not allowed to go into the hospital rooms, but had to wait in the waiting area in a wheelchair while the nurses got her blood results. “The treatment was terrible as my cousin can not speak or hear and she was left alone in the waiting area. It was cold and we had been in the hospital from 7am in the morning until 1.30am the following day,” said Jacobs. She said the most devastating thing was that on 6 April her niece took her cousin to the same hospital where they drew six pints of blood from her and never gave her a date to return for her results. “On Monday we took her as we could see that she was sick and not just for her blood results. When we questioned the nurses about her results we were told the results had not come back from the lab and more blood samples needed to be taken. They took 12 pints from her. How do you do that in one day? The patient is weak and had not eaten the entire day,” said Jacobs.<
She claimed that the hospital is failing the community and ‘that is why there have been so many deaths there due to negligence’. Lisa Row, also from Clare Estate, said that the treatment at the hospital is terrible. “I have lost two family members due to ill treatment and negligence at that hospital,” claimed Row. Row said: “Last year my cousin also died at King George on 16 December and after a month the family was only informed. What the does the law say about informing the family immediately after a patient is declared dead?”
Row added that when the cousin’s mother finally got the news that her son had died she went to the hospital to identify the body. “When she arrived she was told to look through a glass window to confirm that it was indeed her son. They refused her request to have a closer look and told her she was wasting their time and chased her away. She could only confirm it was her son after seeing his clothes which were packed in a plastic bag with his name,” Row said. She said her experience with the hospital has not been a good one, especially after losing more than one family member due to the negligence of King George Hospital. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health was contacted for comment, however, at the time of print none was received.
