HENDRICK du Plessis was sound asleep at his apartment building in Umbilo when he was startled awake by his girlfriend and brother who frantically barged into his home after receiving the news that he had died.
According to du Plessis, a man died at Addington Hospital and the particulars of his medical file were identical. The chain of events then unfolded as follows, “The hospital called my listed workplace in my hospital file and spoke to my former boss. I no longer work there, so my ex-boss called my girlfriend’s workplace to inform her of the news,” he said.
“She then became hysterical and called my brother after she called me and I didn’t answer her call.” du Plessis was asleep when his brother and girlfriend burst into his apartment completely beside themselves and to their relief found him alive and well. du Plessis, shaken up by the incident, reached out to Addington Hospital on Wednesday, March 16 to inform them that he was not the man lying in their mortuary. “I called the hospital and they told me to come to the mortuary to confirm that it was not me,” said du Plessis.
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“I went in the next day and examined him, I had to turn his head to see his face, and surprisingly, he did resemble me,” he said.
The 56-year-old was left with numerous questions about how something like this could have happened. According to du Plessis, he took his questions to the Addington Hospital staff, “I was told that the hospital mixed up my file with the deceased man’s file because we have the exact same first names and surnames,” he said.
Du Plessis said he was in a car accident in 2013 that landed him in Addington Hospital’s accident Ward. “They used my particulars from my file from when I was admitted nine years ago after a car accident and that is how the mix-up happened and why my former boss was contacted.” The Umbilo resident describes the entire ordeal as a ‘terrible experience’.
“Since I went to see the body at the mortuary I can’t sleep. I can’t get the image of the man out of my head.”
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A spokesperson for the KZN Department of Health Ntokozo Maphisa said: “The Department is aware of this matter, and has apologised to the affected individual for the administrative human error which allegedly led to the misunderstanding. This alleged error was internal in nature and has had no material bearing on the complainant. It has since been rectified on the Department’s internal patient record-keeping system.”
Read more of the KZN Department of Health’s response in next week’s Berea Mail.
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