Rob postpones pensioner’s op for sixth time
A 71-year-old pensioner was told the operation needed to splint his broken leg had to be postponed again, for the sixth time now, due to the theatre being "too warm".
Johan Roets was admitted to Rob Ferreira Hospital on December 3 after his upper left leg had been broken.
According to his brother, Thinus Roets, Johan had gone up a ladder to do repairs to a roof.
“The ladder suddenly toppled and he landed on the ground, hard.”
The impact was so severe that his femur broke off completely. He was taken to Rob Ferreira by ambulance. There, X-rays revealed an operation would be necessary to mend it.
Johan was initially supposed to have undergone the operation on Monday December 6.
The procedure had to be postponed, however, as the temperature in the theatre was apparently too high due to a broken air conditioner. Thinus said his brother’s leg was put in traction to avoid the two parts of the bone chafing.
It was then decided the operation would take place on December 13. “It was then postponed again, this time due to some instrumentation and theatre machines being out of order. Since then, the operation has been postponed another three times due to the air conditioners,” Thinus said.
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On Saturday Johan was informed he would undergo the procedure on Monday.
“We were very positive, especially after they had given him a permission form to sign on Monday. The joy was short-lived, however, and what hope he had, evaporated, as it was postponed yet again due to the air conditioners still being broken.
“Johan is past being despondent. He has decided he would not even enquire when he would be operated on anymore.”
Thinus said Johan’s care in the meantime also left much to be desired, and that he had developed multiple bedsores over the past six weeks.
The nursing staff apparently only applied cream once to relieve the pressure points.
Thinus said, “When he asked them when they would do this again, they said he had to supply his own cream.
“They also refused him help when he needed to use his bedpan, for instance. As he cannot move about properly, he struggles to clean himself. The single time I was allowed to visit him, I asked him where the smells were coming from!”
According to Johan, he had not been given meals on several occasions. “When I asked, they brought me two slices of dry bread and some coffee.”
Thinus said he may not visit his brother at all due to the lockdown regulations.
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“I smuggle him some money in every so often, and then he asks some of the other patients to buy him some biscuits and cooldrink at the hospital’s canteen.”
To make matters worse, the traction device, on which the counterweights hang to keep the broken pieces of the femur apart, broke.
By the time of going to press, the structure was still lying on the floor next to the bed.
Dumisani Malamule, the spokesperson for the Mpumalanga Department of Health, did not reply to queries regarding the circumstances in the hospital theatres.
He did not respond to questions about the broken air conditioners, either.
Malamule confirmed, however, that Johan was scheduled to be operated on today.
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