SUDDEN DEATH: Family fumes over daughter’s death

VOSLOORUS – In the early morning of Sunday, July 12, 25-year-old Nonhlanhla Nyembezi, of Somalia Park, woke up with what she believed were flu-like symptoms and decided to go to the nearby JD Dumane Clinic in Vosloorus for treatment.

Now she’s dead and her family are blaming nurses at the clinic for her untimely death.

When Kathorus MAIL visited the family of nine in their single-room shack at the informal settlement, the dead woman’s father, Phila Mazibuko, tried to explain his daughter’s strange death after he said she was given an injection by a nurse when she arrived at the JD Dumane Clinic.

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“On Sunday (July 12) my daughter Nonhlanhla woke up not feeling well and as family, we urged her to go to the clinic. She then asked her younger brother, Themba (22), to accompany her as the two were very close. When they arrived at the clinic, a nurse took Nonhlanhla to the patient’s room where she (the deceased) told us the nurse gave her an injection,” said an emotional and grieving Mazibuko.

Mazibuko explained that Themba was later called into the room by the nurse and asked to come and remove his sister. When he entered, however, he found Nonhlanhla lying on the bed.

She couldn’t walk and her brother asked the nurse why his sister was unable to walk on her own. The nurse responded by telling him that the injection was still ‘penetrating’ Nonhlanhla’s body, but demanded that the young man leave with his ailing sister immediately.

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According to the dead woman’s grieving father, the nurse is said to have asked Themba to help her carry his sister to the gate where the nurse signalled a taxi and asked the taxi driver to drive the sick woman home. “She asked the driver to drop the sick woman at home while Themba was made to walk back on foot. When the taxi driver arrived with her we were all shocked as we had to carry her from the taxi into the house,” explained the dead young mother’s father.

When Nohlanhla’s family tried to get answers from her about her worsened condition, all she could tell them was that the nurse at the clinic had said that she would be ok once the injection took effect. “We didn’t panic then as we thought the nurse knew exactly what she had given her. An hour later, she was still lying on the bed when she suddenly called out for her older sister Phumzile to bring her a bucket in the bedroom as she wanted to urinate,” said Mazibuko.

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But when Nonhlanhla failed to relieve herself, Phumzile called their mother, Lindiwe, and the two women carried the the sickly Nonhlanhla to the toilet. Even there, Nonhlanhla could not relieve herself and her family realised she was getting worse and called an ambulance to take her to hospital. The ambulance arrived several hours later and took her back to JD Dumane Clinic.

“When they arrived with her at the clinic, the nurses gave her two litres of water in a bid to induce her bladder. And when she couldn’t finish the water, they then placed a drip in her body to try and drain the water,” said Mazibuko.

The family told Kathorus MAIL they waited several hours for an ambulance to arrive at the clinic to take the dying woman to the new hospital in Vosloorus. According to the family, the ambulance only arrived around 02:00 the next morning to ferry Nonhlanhla to the new Natalspruit Hospital for further treatment.

“However, she was only seen by doctors at around 16:00 and my wife couldn’t afford to see her daughter in that condition and had to leave the hospital. She arrived home crying and told us what had happened before she left Nonhlanhla with family members and her boyfriend at the hospital.

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“I had planned to go and visit her later in the day, during visiting hours. But unfortunately, just before 15:30, we received a call from the hospital informing us that my daughter had passed on,” said Mazibuko, who pointed out that it’s been two weeks since his daughter’s death and that he has still been unable to bury her.

“I have a family of nine, all of us living in this single-room shack and we do not have the money to bury my daughter. I am blaming JD Dumane Clinic for the death of my child, they killed my child and I’m not scared to say that. I might be able to bury my daughter next week, if God gives me the strength and the means to do so.”

Nonhlanhla’s two young children, aged three and six, are now being cared for by her grieving family.

When approached for comment, the spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health, Steve Mabona, told Kathorus MAIL that his department would not be able to issue a comment on the death of Nonhlanhla, because the family had already lodged a complaint with the SAPS.

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“The Gauteng Department of Health will not be in a position to comment further on the said matter, consequently the family has since lodged a complaint with the police and as such, an inquest docket has been opened to conduct an enquiry on circumstances surrounding the death of Nonhlanhla Nyembezi. The police will be better empowered to comment accordingly,” replied Mabona.

When a asked for comment, the spokesperson for the Vosloorus SAPS, Capt Piet Rossouw, promised to issue a statement as soon as he has found the relevant information pertaining to Nonhlanhla’s death.