The GCN received a call from a Primrose Hill resident regarding the conditions at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital, in Germiston.
Shae Taylor told the GCN that she took her aunt, Celeste Swart, to the hospital last Thursday, February 12.
“I took her in just after 9pm, as she was complaining of stomach pains,” she said.
“When we got to the hospital we were met by the lacklustre attitude of some of the staff members.
“We let the staff’s behaviour slide, as our main focus was getting help for my 64-year-old aunt, who was in agony.”
Taylor added that her aunt, who was feeling terrible pain, saw a doctor only at 1.30am and was admitted.
Swart shared her experience and the treatment she received at the hospital with a GCN journalist.
“I was admitted to the surgical ward and put on an antibiotic drip,” she said.
She also said that she was used to doctors making ward rounds every morning, but that, that was not what she experienced.
“I thought I would see the doctor on Friday morning for further evaluation, but, to my surprise, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday came and went with no doctor attending to me,” she explained.
“This caused serious concern, as all the patients in the same ward as me also had no doctor attend to them.
“Some of the patients were admitted before me; I am not sure if they had been attended to by the doctor prior to my admittance.”
Swart alleged that a patient in the ward died on Monday, February 16.
“There was a patient who had had her legs amputated; I think it was prior to her coming to the hospital, she was in a terrible state,” she said.
“Her amputation was seemingly decaying and she was put on oxygen, but, even in that condition, no doctor came to her.
“She was in a very bad state and the nurses did all they could, but, unfortunately, she died on Monday.
“That was such a sad and awful thing to witness.”
Swart left the hospital last Tuesday, February 17.
“I asked to be signed out of hospital because, although the nurses in the ward were very nice and polite, there was still no doctor and they couldn’t do the work the doctors were meant to do,” she explained.
” I hadn’t had a sonar done the entire time I was in the hospital.
“I am still in pain, it is excruciating, and I still don’t know what is wrong with me.
“I don’t know what to do now, I am a pensioner and rely solely on public hospitals.”
Swart also told the GCN that she was concerned about two male patients.
“There were two male patients who used to walk up and down the hospital, going into the different wards and bothering other patients,” she said.
“At times they had to be strapped to their beds and, at night, one of them would scream the word ‘fire’ repeatedly, at the top of his voice.
“I battled to sleep and get rest.
“I have never experienced such treatment from the hospital; I feel that something needs to be done.”
The GCN contacted Bertha Gxowa’s CEO, Christina Mndaweni, who said: “The enquiry is acknowledged, and we are looking into the matter.”
